31 Days of Winter - FNaF 4 Style
by KuraiFriendku
Summary: The Crying Child, having suffered through the trauma of The Incident and a week-long coma, has been released from the hospital just in time for the holidays. Cheerful as the little boy is, something isn't quite right in his home. Looks like Ben's been caught in the middle of a family crossfire. Contains trace amounts of yaoi, what with the kid having two dads and all.
1. Sweaters

**K+ because I don't expect much to come of this but want to stay on the safe side.**

 _ **Edit/Update:**_ **The second chapter is so much better than the first... sorry.**

* * *

 **Day 01 - sweaters**

"Do ya like your new sweater, bud?"

Jackson inched just the tiniest bit closer to his brother when the younger male wasn't looking. The hospital bed was stiff and somewhat uncomfortable, but at least soft enough to sleep on. That was good, considering his little brother had been ceaselessly sleeping on it for a little over a week. Jack was used to the bed by now, though. Ever since The Incident, he'd sat on that bed and watched his brother sleep, eyes filled with guilt and fear…

...b-but that wasn't now. No, now he watched as the child stared intently at the piece of black fabric that was held in Benjamin's hands. The child flipped it around from one hand to the next, stroking its softness with his thumb before slowly bringing both onyx irises up to Jack, which still flashed with traces of fear. It'd only been a few days after waking up from a week of sleep, and the last thing Ben remembered before going under was his older brother, along with the guy's three friends, shoving his head into...n-no, don't think about that…

Ben could see his older brother's smile falter when he looked to him. The kid hadn't known why Jack suddenly stopped trying to pick on him, call him names, take his toys, etc., but whenever the child began to cry out of fear, it seemed as though Jack might also start to tear up, which was very unusual for the both of them. With a tight clutch of his Fredbear plush, Ben swallowed down his weakening paranoia in hopes that it would keep his brother from breaking down again.

"I sewed it myself," Jackson said with a smile as he fiddled with the straps of his own grey tank. "Chico showed me how, a-and I hope it's okay." It wasn't exactly the _best_ sweater in the world, but it was certainly better than the one Ben had grown so attached to. Even if it hadn't began to smell, the old garment's black-and-grey stripes were now stained with Ben's own blood and their father had gotten rid of it the second he got his hands on it.

The child shrugged his shoulders into himself, unsure of how to react. He really didn't want to make anyone upset, even Jack. However, the latter didn't seem all too pleased with this response, and so the former brought his new sweater up to his cheek, rubbing the soft fabric tenderly against it. There was a certain warmth that emanated from the sweater, like it'd been made from a cozy blanket that could wrap around you and keep you safe. Maybe this thing could keep the nightmares away…

With that thought, Benjamin clutched it tightly to his chest, right next to the golden plush. Freddybear (or so he named his stuffed animal) might not have been so happy with how closer these two were becoming with each passing day, but the brothers sure were, if the younger of the two scooting over toward his brute of a brother so that their legs were touching was any sort of sign.

* * *

 **A/N: There's no way in hell this is getting done before the end of December like I wanted, or even in 31 days...**

 **I hope it's clear enough in the text, but I'm tired af so who knows? Just in case you didn't catch it, Jackson is the brother with the Foxy mask and Benjamin is the Crying Child. It's set in the hospital, just a little over a week since The Bite (or The Incident) and Ben was in a coma. He _just_ woke up a few days ago.**

 **For those following my other stories- I have an upload planed for 50 Drabbles of Springguard soon, and the rest I have absolutely no idea what's going on ._. Inspiration. Bruh.**

 **Also, this will _probably_ be about the length of most chapters here, but I don't like making promises so nyeh.**

 **(I'm tired af if you couldn't tell...)**

 **30 Day Winter Challenge is by SnowCollection on Deviantart. Yah. It's supposed to be for drawing but...that's so much harder ;-; plus I wanted to write. Sorry.** **(I was actually planning to do this with JereFritz but changed my mind last-minute 'cause I reeaaalllyyyyy want more fanfics of the Crying Kid and his brother...be grateful then, I guess? Anyone wants to read the JereFritz, uh...comment I guess. I'm still deciding if I wanna post it...)**


	2. Snowball Fights

**A/N: Wow. This is so much better than the first chapter. Maybe I should stop writing at 21:00 at night ._.**

* * *

 **Day 02 - snowball fights**

The first snow had come early that December. It was light, only producing enough to frost the ground and melting shortly thereafter. However, it remained a constant fall throughout all of the morning and even two hours into the afternoon and didn't show signs of letting letting up anytime soon.

Ben sat on the hospital bed as usual for the past couple of days. His eyes were fixated on the glass window that had since fogged over from the heat of the room. If only the child were close enough, he would press his finger against the glass and draw sad faces on it, but that was so far away, and his head was really hurting today. The nurse had to actually turn the lights off so as to lessen his pain.

So, when the door crept open, Benjamin's older brother was just the slightest bit confused as to why he was greeted with darkness. The light from the window still poured into the room, mixing with its natural quiet scenery to create several shadows scattered throughout. Jack took a step back, gulped, then proceeded straight for the bed.

"Hey, buddy. How're ya doing?"

Ben's natural reaction of jumping away and bringing his hands up to his chest in fear did not help with his older brother's guilt, but the older of the two slowly broke through to the unmoving child to wrap his arms around the smaller frame gently. "It's okay. I won't...hurt you. Not again…"

After a few moments of squeezing his eyes shut, the child's muscles began to relax and a small smile crept onto his brother's face. "I won't hurt you. I promise."

"Jackie?"

The older paused for a moment. That'd been the nickname their more feminine father gave to him, so it wasn't _too_ much of a surprise that the child would pick up on that…

"What's up?"

"I want to go outside…"

Oh. "Er...that's gonna be hard to do-"

"B-but…! I want to be like Caillou."

The older blinked a few times. That...certainly wasn't expected. "What?"

"I want to be like Caillou!"

"Okay, okay!" Jack pulled his brother away enough for their eyes to lock and he scanned the younger pair for any signs of terror, only to find them filled with longing for the cold. "I don't get what you mean by Caillou."

"They played out in the snow. His friends were playing with snowballs out in the snow."

Well, at least that made a little more sense. Didn't mean the nurses would let him out to play with some snow, but made a little more sense. "But you have to stay here…"

Jack trailed off as he saw his brother's black eyes fill up with tears. Before The Incident, he would have laughed at such a sight, but now the bully's regret was threatening to stab him through the heart again. He tightened his grip around the child's torso as Ben's head was pressed lightly against his chest. Ben's muscles tensed for a moment before relaxing into the warmth of the body to let the tears spill over onto Jackson's shirt.

"I'm sorry, bud. I'm sorry."

Ben let out a small whimper in response, burying himself into his brother's body. "I wanna go home…"

With a sigh, Jackie brought his own golden eyes down to floor as his mind shifted to feeling the embrace. "I know, bud...I know."


	3. Hot Chocolate

Day 03 - hot chocolate/hot drinks

Two black eyes flittered open to remove their owner from his dreamland, which wasn't quite as terrifying as they seemed to be through that week of nonstop rest. As Ben glanced around the room, he noticed a figure sitting in the seat beside his bed. It took a moment to orient himself before turning his head to look at the guy.

Jack smiled when he noticed his brother start to stir, and even more so when the child had shifted to look at him. "Hey, bud. How're ya feeling?"

The child's mind focused in on his body's nerves and quickly remembered his headache from yesterday. Though it was much less severe than the day before, this was a four-year-old that was surveying the damage. He quickly brought a hand up to his forehead with a cringe. "Owie…"

"Oh…" Jackson cautiously reached his hand out toward the boy. Ben recoiled away at first, but quickly changed directions upon seeing his brother's face drop. Jack's hand met his brother's shoulder and for a moment, the room stood still. He then moved it upward to Ben's cheek, who froze, as something going anywhere near his wound might make it hurt some more, and so Jack brought the hand back down to his own side with a small sigh. "Sorry, Ben."

"...It's okay. I am okay."

The way he emphasized his speech made Jack smile out of amusement. "Yeah, you're fine. Not gonna hurt ya." _Not again. Never again._

"You won't hurt me," Ben repeated in his own little four-year-old voice. The smile then became accompanied by a small chuckle to which Jack shook his head. "I won't hurt you."

The child then looked down to his Fredbear plush, who seemed to be warning the child otherwise, but that bear was a real downer, so Ben didn't pay much mind to it.

"Phone Dad talked to the doctor," Jack said. "He said since you _really_ wanted to go home, we could take you tomorrow."

A small gasp emitted from the child as Jack could see his eyes shimmer. This, too, caused a chuckle to exit the older one, who stood up to replace himself on Ben's bed. "Yup. we're going to go home again tonight. Then tomorrow you can come with us. Oh. And guess what else Phone Dad's getting."

"He…" After a moment of thinking, Ben gave a small shrug. "What?"

As if on cue, a man almost as tall as the door itself stepped inside, his black, poofy hair pressing under the frame. Three hot mugs were in his hands as his smile beamed at the two boys. "Hello, hello! I got hot chocolate!" He made his way to the other side of the room where his boys sat and took the chair Jack had been in only moments before. "Do you want some, uh, hot chocolate?"

"Yeah…" The boy's black eyes followed his father's mugs in trance, and both older males gave an amused look.

"Alright, you can have some."

After distributing the mugs, the older two clinked theirs together, to which the youngest decided he'd like to participate in this 'cheer' thing too.

"To tomorrow," Jack said, to which the others repeated him.

"To going home," his father finished.


	4. Books

**A/N: Sorry for not uploading yesterday. I'm sick today, though, so maybe I can get two chapters out if we're lucky.**

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 **Day 4 - books**

Ben was pretty pumped December 4th, to say the least. His brother currently had a firm grip on him as they walked through the hospital's front doors, which both surprised their dad and filled him with a loving sense of hope. The "Phone Dad" was amazed at how quickly Ben had forgiven his older brother. It'd taken only a few days for their bond to be well past restored (considering they didn't have much of a bond in the first place) and that alone put a wide smile upon the father's face.

Most of the snow from last night had melted. It was unusually hot considering the frozen precipitation had just occurred yesterday, but Ben's new sweater still felt cozy and safe wrapped around him.

"Sure is warm," Jack remarked as they made their way to the car.

Their father gave a small nod. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a keyring with several keys attached to it, one of which he singled out for use. "We're, uh, supposed to be getting a snowstorm soon. A pretty bad one…" His mind conjured a couple negative thoughts, all of which Scott shook away. "That should be f-fun to play in, right?"

Jackson nodded. He remembered his brother wanted to play in the snow yesterday and hopefully the boy would get his wish.

The car ride back wasn't much more exciting. Freddybear had continued to warn Ben of what could happen should he trust his brother, but the child continued to not pay much mind to it. "It's okay," he said at some point. "Jackie's good now. He won't hurt me."

That didn't stop the bear from feeling a bit of rage that his attachment wouldn't listen to him as the kid had so many times before, so he ended up quietly fuming for the rest of the ride.

When they got home, Ben was so thrilled to see his sibling and parent that had not seen him yet. After waking up, the only two to ever come in were his brother and Phone Dad. He swung his legs to get out of Jack's grip once the three had entered their house, and after a few moments, said male finally let the kid go, who raced off into his sister's room.

Scott chuckled as he saw the look on his younger son's face at being greeted with an empty room. There was still furniture, there were still toys scattered about, there was even still that animatronic by her bed (remind Scott to have her put that away), but the girl herself was nowhere to be seen.

"Are you looking for Vanessa?" When his son nodded in reply, he continued. "She's, uh, at a friend's house right now. She'll be back for dinner, though."

"Oh…" A frown crept over the child's face. Him and his sister got along so well when she wasn't trying to scare him (it wasn't nearly as bad as Jack had, though; just that the girl'd say things to freak him out. At least she was nice afterward). She was probably Ben's closest thing to a human friend.

"Hey, cheer up." The father bent down to Ben's level and gave him a warm smile. "I know someone else you can say hi to."

A small gasp emitted from the child at just thinking about seeing the parent of whom he had not consciously been in touch with since before The Incident. He stood staring at his phone father for a moment while clutching his Fredbear plush before heading out to find the other.

It didn't take him long, either. A figure stood just at the top of the staircase that led to their second floor, its body covered in a purple pajama shirt and matching violet pants. Despite them simply being pjs, they still appeared somewhat formal, especially for sleepwear.

The man smiled brightly as he saw his son approach the stairs with one equally as wide. "Ah, Ben. I see you are feeling much better than when I last saw you."

"Purple Daddy!" Ben exclaimed and opened up his arms while trying to climb up the stairs at the same time. He could feel the disapproval (and...something else?) emanating from his stuffed bear but paid no mind to it, as this was a common occurrence whenever him and the purple-clad man were in the same room.

Said man met his son a little more than halfway, climbing down some of the steps and scooping him up. "I have missed you quite a lot, Benjamin. You had me worried sick when you wouldn't wake up."

The smile on the child's face slowly faded. He nuzzled his head into the crook of his father's neck while whimpering, "I'm sorry, Daddy. I didn't like sleeping."

"That's alright. You are safe now that you are back home, and I assure you I wi-"

"Ben, I got some books!" A cheerful voice echoed through the living room as Jack stepped inside it, a large smile perched on his face. "You wanna go read some-!...fairy...tales…" That smile slowly faded when he saw who was holding the kid. He stopped in his tracks once the man started to scowl and Ben could feel the grip around himself tighten.

"Hi, Jackie," Ben said, albeit with some unease. Something in the air made him feel a little scared, and he wasn't even sure what this time. Surely both his brother and father would protect him!

Jack gave a small nod, his golden eyes flashing with...something. Not sorrow...fear? Not quite…

"Yes, _Jackie._ "

Jack cringed as his father spit acid out of his mouth, towards the boy. Jack's eyes turned downward, the hands soon to follow. The boy let his shoulders slump and, if he had a tail, that would probably have fallen straight down too.

His father then began to approach. At first, Jack's eyes bonded back upward and Ben could see how much wider they were. The older brother took a step back, his hands no longer dangling at his sides but now up in front of him in defense.

However, when the purple man reached him, the only thing he did was snatch away the reading materials. "Benjamin, how about we read a book together?"

"W...what about Jackie?" Ben looked back over at his brother, who was quiet clearly upset, but he just couldn't figure out why.

His father growled the tiniest bit. " _It_ can go clean off your jacket again. _Maybe this time it'll get the blood out_ _._ " And with that, the two left "it" to stand in the middle of the living room, tears pouring down out of "its" eyes.

Jack should've known better. "It" should've known "its" purple dad wouldn't beat "it" in front of Ben, and yet "it" still acted like a coward. He really was worthless.

* * *

 **I'm going to start a poll.**

 **Now, I have two possible ways of ending this. Don't panic, we still got a while before we get there, I just want to put this up so there's plenty of time to decide.**

 **The first ending would be happy and warm, providing a sense of closure. The second would be twisted and somewhat sick, providing my theory on how FNaF all started. Can't say much more without spoiling, sorry!**

 **How this works- each comment counts as one vote, assuming you say somewhere in there which one you want. Please be honest and only vote once.**

 **I also have a poll up on my profile. Using this method, you may vote twice if you like. Only stick to one comment _and_ one poll vote, please (you don't have to do both, but you can)!**

 **The poll will close after posting chapter 30. By that point, anymore votes will _not_ be counted. But, like I said, that's a long ways away~**

 **The winning ending will occur in chapter 31~ Please feel free to comment/PM with any questions!**


	5. Ice Skating

**Day 5 - ice skating**

Jackie wasn't feeling so well the next day. When his father offered to take everyone ice skating, he unfortunately had to decline. Their dark-skinned, purple-adorned parent also decided he'd stay home, stating that he would "look after their sick child," to which Ben saw something flash across Jack's eyes but wasn't able to catch what it was.

Shortly after, Ben was lacing up his little sneakers and throwing on the sweater his brother had sewn for him. It was somewhat odd and a bit on the large side, but reminded him of a giant hug. He watched as his sister slipped on a pretty lavender coat and stepped through the door. Scott followed up shortly behind the two. Together, they made their way for the car.

" _Ben,"_ the Fredbear plush said once they were situated inside the car. He knew well enough that only his attachment could hear him speak, unless another ghost happened to be floating around.

The child looked down to his plush with a smile. Things had been going so well lately that his usual sad emotion had changed its default to one of happiness and wonder.

" _You have to be careful with them. They'll hurt you, Ben."_

The child gave a small shrug mentally, physically wrapping his arms around the soft bear. "Okay."

" _Really. They'll hurt you!"_

Ben nodded. He didn't really believe Freddybear anymore, but that didn't stop Ben from claiming him as his best friend in the whole world. There's no way the kid could argue with his best friend.

He didn't need to, either. Freddybear could sense his emotions anyway, including disbelief. " _...I'm just trying to protect you, Ben...I don't want you to see you hurt. I don't like it."_

That being said, it wasn't just a one-sided thing. Just as the spirit could feel his attachment's emotions, so too could Ben feel his. "I know. I still love you, Alex. You're my BEST friend."

Vanessa took a side glance at her brother, her amber eyes filling up with confusion as an eyebrow crept higher on her head. "Weirdo. That toy is gonna come to life and eat you like Fredbea-"

"Vanessa!" their dad's voice rose above the noise of the children, which was an unusual sound for the both of them and brought both of their heads swiveling towards the source.

For a moment, all was still. Ben then turned to stare out the window, seeing a large building with a dome over top. The sign on it read in big letters 'CHARLIE'S ICE RINK'.

* * *

Upon returning to the house, the atmosphere had shifted from pretty good (once Ben had learned not to be afraid of the skates) to horribly depressing with just the push of a door. The small child could see his purple father out in the kitchen, staring angrily at some sort of brown bottle with a blue label. He couldn't read the label, though.

Scott, too, noticed this, and walked on over to the man. Vanessa had decided she'd want to play with the Mangle bot some more, and so Ben and Freddybear were left to pay the eldest brother a visit.

The first thing that the two noticed when they made their way upstairs was that the golden rabbit, who had always been perched on the chair in the hall for decoration, was now sitting just beyond the doors in the hallway. The two went by the four doors (two on each side) and Freddybear expected Plush to say something as they passed, but the rabbit kept quiet, adding to at least Freddybear's confusion.

They continued further down, finally reaching one of the two doors that led to Jack's room. Ben jingled with the knob a little before pushing the door open, letting it swing just a crack before he slipped inside.

Jackson was stationed in front of his bed, and likewise, in the middle of the room. He was curled up in a ball, holding a flashlight that had been facing the closet directly across from Jack. The boy huddled his knees close to his chest and rocked back and forth while his eyes darted from the door to the right to the one on the left, at which point he froze.

The pair of gold and pair of black eyes both locked with each other and Ben slowly shuffled his feet towards his older brother, careful not to startle him. The kid slipped his arms around Jack's frozen frame, ignoring Freddybear telling him to get away, ignoring the yelling from downstairs, even ignoring the black-and-blues scatter along Jack's body. Ben didn't care about the rest of the world anymore, he just wanted his brother to be happy.

* * *

 **Woo! It took forever, but I finally finished! Two in one day!**

 **Now I gotta start on hw ;-;**

 **...there really wasn't much about ice skating in here, was there? ...Woops.**

 **Next chapter should be happier! I hope...**

 **(it's sad because I'm sad...hopefully sleep can fix that?)**


	6. Parkas or Big Coats

**Day 06 - parkas/big jackets**

Ben scrambled into his brother's room with the widest grin he could possibly hold, not to mention the most amount of stuffed animals he'd ever be able to fit into his arms (five total, though to be fair, one _was_ missing a head). As soon as the boy had stepped inside, his brother turned away from the sewing supplies that was spread out on the bed. However, instead of his usual grey tank top, a similarly-colored jacket wrapped itself around the male and engulfed almost the entirety of both arms. The child didn't really pay much mind to this; he was too busy toddling on over to the bedside, doing his best not to drop a single plush.

Jackson chuckled at the tremendous amount of effort his brother was apparently putting in. "You need some help there, bud?"

"No! I am...okay."

"Okay, well I got the supplies ready. Put them on the floor."

And Ben did so, bending down to let each of the five fall to the floor, then quickly lifted the golden one back into his arms.

Jack smiled at his brother. "You want to start with Freddybear?"

 _"Ben, no."_

Much to said bear's dismay, Ben eagerly nodded his head and held out the bear for his brother to take.

"I think he should get a purple coat."

One look at Freddybear's hat, and Ben found himself agreeing with the older.

 _"Beeeeen…"_

The kid could hear himself giggle at Freddybear's protests, not because of it being fun to listen to his friend's complaints, but because he knew the ghost wouldn't honestly mind much. And he knew his best friend well! (Forget the fact that he was the only one who knew Alex was still hanging around…)

"Set him on the pillow. I'll try to remember what Chico showed me."

It really didn't take long to tailor a large, awkward winter coat for the stuffed bear. It draped down to Freddybear's feet and tilted slightly to the left due to a few askew buttons. Honestly, Jack wanted to rip the thing apart and start over, but Ben seemed to enjoy the garment, so he resisted the urge.

"Alright, who's next?"

"Um…" The kid looked around at his remaining plushes and slowly reached for the purple rabbit. "Toby."

"Toby?" Jack's mind flashed an image before him of their time at Ben's last party, particularly one of his friend wearing a Bonnie mask. Each of their group had a favorite, and Toby chose the purple rabbit. This caused the Foxy-lover to raise his eyebrows, skimming first over that plush, then to the other three. "What'd you name the others?"

"Uh, that one's Chicky," his brother replied, pointing a finger over first to the chicken, then following up with the bear and headless fox, "that's Fredery, and that's Jacky."

Jackie blinked a few times as pictures came forth with each name, Chico with a chicken mask to start with, then his friend Frederick, of course with a mask to look like Freddy, then Jack himself, only lacking a mask, just as the Foxy plush was lacking its head.

"Ben...did you name them after my friends?"

Ben's black eyes turned toward his feet, which angled themselves to point inward. "Is that bad?"

"No, bud." The Foxy mask teen dropped down to his brother's level and waited for his brother to look up. Their eyes locked, and whatever tears were starting to form instantly dried up as Ben saw a warm look in the golden pair. In the older's mind, he was thinking of how sweet the child had been for naming Ben's "friends" after the very tormentors that sent him through a coma, and at the same time telling himself how awful he was for beheading one of them. This wasn't the first time he'd scolded himself though, so it didn't hit him all too hard. Not when Ben was smiling, anyway.

They took another look at plush Toby and then to the sewing supplies. "He should get a yellow coat," said the child. Four more to do, and almost done with the day. The snow was supposed to come that night!

"It might clash a little…"

"But Freddybear is yellow with a purple coat."

Eh, what'd Jack know? He never paid attention to that kind of stuff. With a sigh (and small smile), Jack picked up the measuring tape and began wrapping it around the plush's waist. Four more to do, only two hours to do them.


	7. Sledding

**Day 07 - sledding**

The moment Ben had awoken was the moment he shot out of bed and darted for the frost-stained window. What he was greeted with was a street full of white and yard equally as present in color. The child held up his stuffed bear so that its possessor could have a look at the view, and he could hear Alex gasp as well, despite the spirit trying not to.

Two little feet pounded against the floor only seconds later, out of their owner's room, up the stairs and directly toward Jackson's bed.

"It's snowing!" Ben cried, and his brother sat up to see who was yelling from the left door.

Once the elder had realized who was bouncing up and down with joy, he smiled, sliding off the bed and stretching once on his own feet. "It is?"

"Yeah! There's snow on my window!"

Jackson chuckled, noting that Freddybear still had on his crappy coat from yesterday. _Heh, that thing looks like it should be in the trash,_ he thought to himself, _Good thing the bear's not alive. I'd hate to be him._

Gold eyes glanced over at the alarm clock positioned by his bed. Ten minutes 'til the bus arrived, and it never even went off! With an irritated sigh, Jack found himself storming through the house about his daily routine, a somewhat confused Ben trailing behind him.

It was ten minutes later that the phone rang, just as the teen was about to step out the door. He clunked his winter boots over the dining room floor and reached for it, his voice muffling through his thick scarf. "Hello?"

"Jackson!" an eager voice cried over the phone. "Chico and Fred are busy but you wanna come over and play in the snow?"

Ben heard his brother's irritated sigh as the guy continued. "I can't, Toby. I'm going to school."

At that point a laugh had been let out, loud enough for even the child to hear. "Didn't you check the weather school's cancelled!"

Twenty minutes later, the boys were making their way over to the rabbit-lover's house. Thankfully, all four of Jack's little "posy" lived within the neighborhood, Toby's house being just at the end of the block. When they made it to the porch, said boy swung open the front door, dressed nowhere near as warmly as Jack, but at least wearing a not-so-bulky winter coat.

"How're you not cold in that?" Jack asked, scanning over the lad and practically feeling himself shiver just by looking.

Toby only rolled his eyes. "It's not that cold I've seen worse anyway c'mon the sled's out back and we should start playing 'cause my dad might get home soon and I don't know if he wants you guys here."

The four-year-old blinked, his little mind trying to process what all had been said. After a few moments' pause, he tilted his head. "You talk fast."

The two older males exchanged a glance before chuckling. Toby stepped aside to let the other two in, placing a hand on the door frame as he did so. "I talk fast sometimes but it's only when I'm super excited or nervous or something. Man you should see my brother he _never_ shuts up it's so bad _I_ can't even understand him sometimes and at least I put periods in between sentence sometimes he doesn't even-"

"Toby," Jack cut him off, to which the the dark-haired teen glanced his purpleish-blue eyes over toward Jack.

"Hehe right right the sleds. This way!"

When Jack said 'sledding,' Ben pictured riding a large boat down a hill of whipped cream/snow. When Ben stood at the top of a very large (and steep) hill, terrified out of his mind, Jack could only sigh. Of course his brother was being a little wimp, like always. He wouldn't make fun of the kid for it, though. No, no, that was an urge he could easily suppress. And when the child looked up at him with tears streaming down his face, Jack couldn't help but lift him up off the sled.

"Hey, buddy," the most soothing voice Jack could muster said as he brought his little brother up in his arms. "It's okay. You're not gonna get hurt."

Toby glanced over at the two just as he was about to go down and stopped dead in his tracks. "He's scared? What a bab-"

The teen cut himself off when he received a glare from Jack, the latter of which wrapped his arms tighter around the trembling boy. Toby's purplish-blue eyes trailed downward for a moment in shame before returning back to the small child. "Oh yeah I guess we should…" He rose, approaching the child and running a hand through the kid's hair, which only served to terrify him even more as his tiny little muscles froze up.

Jack took a deep breath in, squeezing his eyes shut. "Ben, c'mon. We're not going to hurt you. Never."

The child sniffled, burying his head into his brother's chest and barely muttering, "Never?"

"Never."

Just for reassurance, Jack looked over at Toby, who removed his hand with a nod. "Nope! We won't do that. Itwasreallybadthefirsttime-"

"Slower, Toby."

Toby took a deep breath in, focusing on slowing his speech, which seemed to be pretty incomprehensible otherwise. "It was...really bad the first time. We wouldn't ever...do it again."

Ben poked his head back up at the two elders, looking between them for signs of cruelty and, somewhat like he expected, finding none. "Never again."

"Never again," Jack repeated with a chuckle. He then began to situate himself on the sled, pausing only when Ben started to squirm. "Hey! We'll go down together."

"Together?"

"Yeah." Jack offered him a warm smile, to which the younger brother relaxed a little. "That way, if anything goes wrong, I'll be here to protect you." He couldn't help but poke that stupid golden plush in Ben's hands. "And so's Freddybear."

A grin etched its way over the child's face as Ben attempted to push the sled downhill.

* * *

 **I'm so sorry I can't keep up with these ag! DX**

 **I hope this is happier and not as crappy like.../shivers/ day five...oh god...**

 **And seriously guys, please vote. There's been about two votes so far. Do you want a happy ending for the boys or a twisted, messed up, fascinating one? Not a difficult choice (or, well, maybe it is...). Maybe I'll throw in something completely derp if there's only _two friggin' votes_ later on still.**

 **...Okay, I probably won't, but maybe. *shrug***


	8. Snow Angels

**Day 8: snow angels**

"Snow is cold."

Jack chuckled as he watched his brother roll around in the snow. The kid was practically a white crayon with the amount that covered him, yet Ben was still going at it. There was a smile dawning both of their faces, as well as the figure standing next to them. None could really help it- school was out for another day and the ground was like a giant blank canvas. Even the ghost that possessed the Fredbear plush left to join in on the fun, despite Ben being the only one who could see him.

"Snow _is_ cold," the figure beside the brothers stated as they picked some in their navy blue gloves. "Snow is _very_ cold."

Ben sat up, watching as his brother's friend let the snow fall through their hand and onto the ground, similar in a way to shredded up pieces of paper. The former giggled a bit and attempted to grab hold of a few flakes. His black eyes glanced up at the friend's face, begging for them to do it again.

"Okay, okay." Chico laughed and picked up another handful. Once again, they slowly let it crumble out of their palm and the child still tried to hold onto some, but to little avail.

By the third time around, Ben's face began changing expressions from one of awe to one of frustration. It was when he let out a quiet growl that Jack lifted the child up and away from said source of anger.

"Snow is mean," the younger brother whined.

His elder offered him a warm smile, positioning said boy in a way that allowed Jack to pat his brother's back. "It _is_ cold."

"And mean."

"Not really…"

The younger huffed, and when Jack didn't reply, his friend took a step forward.

They slowly opened up their arms. Ben glanced between them with slight confusion, then to his brother. Was Chico offering a hug? ...Was it safe?

"Go on," his brother said, holding Ben just a little bit away from his chest. The kid only grabbed onto Jack's shirt and pulled his way back.

Chico frowned. Well, it wasn't exactly expected for the child to forgive him immediately. The fact that Ben had even wanted to tag along in the first place was surprising enough, though it still hurt that a bit of fear remained inside such an innocent youth.

As soon as Ben buried his face into his brother's chest, Jack began to rock on his feet in an attempt to calm the boy's fears. "Shh...I got ya, bud."

The two elders exchanged a glance and Jack smiled at his friend. Trying to comfort two people at once could be a bit difficult, but at least one was old enough to understand that it'd take time for the damage to heal.

"I have an idea," Jack said as he slowly placed his brother down between the two and squatted down himself. "Do you wanna make a snow angel?"

Ben rubbed his eyes before looking up at the two teens. "Snow angel?"

"Oh!" Chico clapped their hands together. "A snow angel. Snow angels are fun."

The boy tilted his head. "What's a snow angel?"

"Y'know those chicks with wings coming out their backs?" Jack asked, laying down on his stomach in the cold snow. "You just make one of those in the snow. That's it."

'That's it', however, equated in the little four-year-old's mind as gathering two wings from a very large dove and a wedding ring that belonged to a very rich giant, as those would be the only plausible ways of getting the necessary parts. The three might also need to steal one of their mothers' dresses, which couldn't be good for anyone.

Seeing this displayed across Ben's face, Chico chuckled. "It's not like building a snowman. A snow angel means lying in the snow and moving your arms around. It looks like a silhouette of an angel; it's not like a snowman."

Ben's mouth curved into the shape of an 'o' before he pressed his hands down firm against the snow, moving them around wildly. Once finished (about ten seconds later), he stood up to look at his masterpiece, a wide smile across his face. "I made a snow angel!"

"That's not-"

Chico elbowed their friend, who had moved once more into a standing position by this point, in the ribs, giving him a quick glare in the process before turning back to Ben. "It's lovely."

The proud little boy then went about poking his finger into the snow a little ways away from the masterpiece, focus intent on drawing...whatever it was he was drawing. Both teens watched him doodle for a few minutes, eventually Jack kneeling down in the snow next to him on one side and Chico laying their legs together on the other.

After a little while, the teens' curiosity overtook them and the male asked his little brother, who was still forming little circles and what-not, "What are you drawing?"

"It's us," Ben said, bringing his finger back. Three stick figures were present, the only thing missing being an arm from one. Two were about the same size, the figure on the right having what was probably little fox ears sticking out of its head and the one on the left with a line drawn out of its face (maybe a duck bill…?). There was a stick figure between the two, about half the size of them both and with an even smaller figure in its thin arms. That smaller one had something that could pass as a top hat...probably.

Jack raised his eyebrow. "That's us three?"

"Yeah. You'd be like Purple Daddy," Ben pointed first to his older brother and then to his brother's friend. "you'd be like Phone Daddy, I'm Jack and Freddybear is me."

Freddybear's spirit, who had been floating nearby for the time (since Ben had been forced to leave his plush at home...dumb parents. Snow won't ruin the fur!), began to doodle something himself- something a bit further away from the group so that neither of the older two would see him do it.

Chico laughed a bit at the child's snow sketch, shoving Jackson's slight blush to the back of his mind for the time being. "Ben, we're not married!"

"Oh," was all the child replied, since he had no clue as to what marriage entailed and therefore didn't really pay much mind to the statement.

The living three went about making more doodles in the snow, adding first Toby, then Frederick and Vanessa, and finally their parents (both Jack and Ben's as well as Chico's).

When the drawing done by Freddybear's spirit was finished, however, he stood up and walked over toward his attachment, knowing the older two wouldn't be able to see him.

"Huh?" Ben poked his head up to see what the ghost wanted. Alex waved his hand for the child to follow, and he did, the two teens only watching as he walked a few steps and sat down on his knees. They then went back to their own drawings.

What Ben saw were two people, presumably both male, outlined in the snow. He looked up at Alex. "Did you draw these?"

When the ghost nodded, he smiled back down at them. "I like them."

"Ben," the spirit said, drawing his attachment's attention. "Look at who they are."

Ben took a closer look, taking in a shirt with lines (or a coat, maybe?) on the taller of the two drawings, as well as a scarf...or a tie. One of the two. He had a wide smile on his face, a bit wider than Ben might have liked. The shorter one looked quite similar to the way Alex held his ghosty hair, as well as being adorned with a top hat and bowtie, just like the Fredbear plush. That one, on the other hand, was frowning immensely as marks raked down his cheeks, probably tears.

The living child tilted his head. "Is that...Caillou?"

Alex sighed, quickly scribbling beneath the taller one the words "Purple Daddy" and under the shorter one, "me".

"Oh!" Ben's face lit up again. "You're with Purple Daddy!"

The ghost did his best to hold back emotion as he continued writing, this time above the figures. The word "Jack" was formed by the so-called Purple Daddy's head, while "Ben" was written just by the shorter's top hat.

The living child looked back up at his ghost friend with yet another confused expression. "Purple Daddy is Jack?"

Alex nodded.

Ben then looked at the younger figure. "And you're me?"

Alex nodded.

Ben's frown, however, only increased. "I don't get it."

* * *

 **I wanted to be on day 15 by now ;-; help.**


	9. Fireplace or Candles

**UPDATE ON THE ENDING: So far, we got four votes for bad and four for good ;) Imma keep threatening you guys with a derp ending if you don't untie it~**

* * *

 **Day 9: fireplace/candles**

"Thanks for watching him," Jack said as he held his brother against his chest. "I really appreciate it. You have no idea how much this thing means to me."

The teen in front of him nodded, his dirty blond hair falling in front of his face without a Freddy mask to stop it. His sapphire eyes glanced over at the boy in Jack's arms and how tears were streaming down his cheeks at the very sound of Jack leaving him in the care of Frederick. It made the ex-bully cringe a little on the inside, though he kept his calm and collective manner on the exterior.

"C'mon, bud. He's not gonna hurt you. I thought I already told ya that."

"I don't wanna go," the child whimpered and nuzzled his head into the crook of Jack's neck, to which the older sighed.

"Ben, you can't stay attached to me forever."

"I don't wanna go."

Jackson locked eyes with his friend. Said friend put his hands up, as if to say 'I have no idea what to do. Why're you looking at me?', then mentally began running through a list of possibilities.

'What about your siblings?' Jack mouthed when he received no reply, to which Frederick's eyes widened.

He nodded and mouthed back, 'They're here'.

"Hey, Ben." Jack then turned his attention to his younger sibling, smiling brightly at the boy. "You like friends."

Ben rubbed at his eyes before looking up at the brother. "Freddybear's my friend," he said while holding out the golden plush.

Jack nodded. "Freddybear's your friend."

"A-and Jackie and Toby and Freddery and Chicky are my friends!"

The older brother chuckled as his peer shot him a slightly confuzzled expression. "Yeah, they're your friends, too."

"And…" Ben looked at his feet in thought before returning those black orbs to his comforter. "...you're my friends?"

Jack nodded. "We're your friends. But you wanna make more friends. Right?"

"Uh…" Whenever someone had told him to "make friends," it always ended up with people making fun of him. The closest thing he got to a "friend" outside of stuffed animals, family and his brother's posey was that one fat boy that showed up at his party...Sean, maybe? The four-year-old couldn't remember people's names all that well, but he recalled an obsession with balloons.

Either way, they had barely spoken outside of the boy laughing (probably at him), and so Ben was restricted to his plushies and his family.

"Fred has two brothers and a sister you can talk to. Would you like that?"

Slowly, Ben slid out of his brother's grip and toward the ground, however clutched the boy's leg after reaching it. His brother sighed and, after a few moments, managed to forcefully pull him away, keeping him at arm's length for a little while Frederick reached out to grab hold of his torso.

"No! No, I don't wanna go!"

The two teenaged males exchanged a glance between each other, eyes filled with memories of The Incident that they forced back as Ben curled up in a ball on the floor. Phone Dad had warned Jack about this kind of thing- the dreaded temper tantrum.

"Ben, just go with Frederick."

"No! No!"

With an agitated growl, Jack reached down and snatched Freddybear from right out of the child's hands, to which Ben screamed even more.

"If you don't shut up and go with Frederick, I won't give it back!"

Though tears still rolled down his eyes, Ben quieted almost immediately.

Jackie then tossed the bear at his friend, who barely kept it in his hands as he wasn't expecting the thing to be chucked at him. "Hold onto this until I leave."

Frederick nodded, then gave his friend a small wave.

He expected the smile to return to Jack's face, but it only disappeared more as the boy turned towards Fred's driveway where the purple car was parked. He stepped outside, and if Fred didn't know any better, he'd say his friend was pretty reluctant to do so. "Yeah. See ya later."

And with that, the door slammed shut.

A few seconds later, a scruffy looking boy no more than eight came scrambling down the staircase.

"Who's crying?" he asked as his vibrant brown eyes scanned over the living room. Before his older brother had a chance to reply, the kid had already found his target and was making his way over to the child that lay crying on his living room floor.

"Hello!" The kid stuck his hand out to Ben while his brother eyed him suspiciously. "I'm Ronnie!"

Ben rubbed his black irises to pull away some of the damp tears. He watched Ronnie's hand and the button thing in the middle of it. Curiously, Ben stuck out his own, but he regretted doing so the second the two made contact. A small spark cut through to the younger child's flesh; it wasn't nearly enough to do any damage or even hurt, really. It did, however, startle the living daylights out of him and he let out a yelp in fear before once more crying.

Ronnie laughed as he watched tears stream down the kid's face, though his brother's didn't look quite so happy. He glared at Ronnie, picking Ben up (though the child did squirm a bit) and handing him his Fredbear plush.

"He's such a baby!" Ronnie exclaimed, dashing back up to his room before Fred had a chance to stop him.

Fred sighed, knowing that that was a phrase his brother had picked up on from himself and his friends. He turned back to Ben with a small frown. What was it Jack did? He remembered seeing the guy rub Benjamin's back, so let's give that a try. The four-year-old's tears became more quiet than they had been before, though Freddybear seemed to be doing the most good at that moment; the screaming had stopped as soon as it was returned.

Frederick then began to walk toward the fireplace, where his little sister sat on the sofa, her nose shoved in some math book for grade school as she twiddled with one of her dark brown braides, and the final child in the pack of eight-year-old triplets resting against the carpet while fiddling around with some Matchbox cars.

"Fraide, Eddy," said twos' half-brother called as they poked their heads up to smile at Fred. Fraide even slid herself off the couch to see who her older half-brother was holding.

The teen then gave the four-year-old a small shake, crouching down so that the kid was at level with his sister and Fred could continue holding him.

Ben turned his head around just enough to see the dark skinned girl staring at him with her wide, brown eyes. He reached out his hand, slowly, to press his finger against her round glasses and quickly drew it back.

The girl smiled and waved. "H-hi," she stuttered out. "I'm F-Fr-Fraide."

The smile spread from one person to the next as the (no longer) crying child was released from Frederick's hold, stumbling a bit at first and clutching tight to his Fredbear plush. "I'm Ben."

She nodded, hurrying back over to the couch to resume her homework. However, what neither her nor Fred expected was for Ben to follow. He had climbed up onto the sofa next to her and peered over, taking in the weird numbers and symbols and frowning.

"What's that?" the younger asked, poking a finger to '4/7'.

Fraide smiled. "That's c-called a f-f-fraction. It's f-four s-sevenths, j-just like my teacher taught me."

"Four sevenths?" Ben frowned. That didn't make sense. What was four sevenths? He glanced over the rest of the page, looking for some sort of explanation, but being unable to find one in the mess of weird looking pictures that lay strewn across the page. There were a couple x's, which he recognized as the spot of treasure on a pirate's map (thank you, Jack, for being absolutely obsessed with them), however missing the meaning of everything else entirely.

"What's that?" he asked again, pointing to the word 'table' in one of the large strands of text.

Fraide gave a small, very quiet giggle before replying. "That's a t-table. It's what you s-s-sit at to eat-t."

"Oh." He stared intently at the word, trying to figure out how on Earth that looked like a table. "That's not a table." He knew what a table looked like!

"N-no, that's the w- _word_ table."

"Word?" Oh, words! Those were the weird looking pictures that didn't make any sense…

Eddy poked his head up at the conversation that was interrupting his playtime. It must've been good if they couldn't wait til he finished! "Words are the stuff you read, stupid."

A little tear trickled down the corner of Ben's black eye as he turned to stare at the floor. "I can't read…"

This, in turn, caused Frederick to raise an eyebrow as he meandered over to his friend's brother. Couldn't read? Ben was how old again? Four, right, and he couldn't read?

The teen reached for a dark blue children's book from off the end table beside the couch. He pointed at the title, _Birdy Gets Stuck on a Pinwheel_ _,_ and glanced over at said child. "Can you tell me what this word says?"

"Um…" Ben frowned, shaking his head, then slid off the couch and in front of the fireplace. Was he supposed to know what it said? ...That book is was too hard.

Fred scooted himself down to the kid's level, Eddy becoming frustrated with the ongoing conversation and retreating to the depths of his bedroom. "So you can't read." He wrapped his arm around the child's shoulders before giving him a light shake and pulling it back.

Ben shook his head.

"You want me to teach you?"

The child's eyes sparkled as a gasp emitted from his lips. "I can read the weird pictures?"

"Uh...words. Yeah. I can teach you how to read words."

The child smiled at his brother's- no, _his_ friend. They were his friends now, right? All of them- Jack, Toby, Chico, Frederick- they'd all hurt him, but they'd all been sad about it. They visited him in the hospital, after all (or so Jackson said; the kid was still asleep).

The rest of the afternoon was spent reading out of several different books, some of which the child could even make out a whole sentence from! He'd probably forget most of it upon returning home, but that was a problem for then. This is a victory for now.

Even though he was excited to come to the realization that he had real friends now (even if they did kind of stick him in his phobia's mouth), two things plagued the child's mind. One, why was Jack crying when him and Purple Daddy came to pick Ben up? When Ben saw his more masculine father come to retrieve him, he simply couldn't contain his happiness and scrambled out to the car while the man spoke with Frederick's parents. It was then that he found his brother, tears streaming down the boy's face as Jack's knees were clutched to his chest.

"What's wrong?" Ben had asked, but hadn't received an answer and had to resort to simple physical contact (wrapping his arms around Jack, the only comforting he knew how to do) to help his brother.

Two, why was Freddybear so mad? Or, more specifically, why was Freddybear not as mad at Jack as usual, and even more so at Purple Daddy than he normally was?

* * *

 **I think this is the longest chapter so far .-. and filled with filler...great...**

 **ALMOST a third of the way through! :D I̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶2̶0̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶;̶-̶;̶**

 **There's a reason why the Freddy Mask Kid has three siblings, by the way. Just sayin'.**


	10. Snowed In (AKA How to Undertale)

**Since Fanfiction doesn't allow updates/news to be made in new chapters, guess I'll have to put it here.**

 **My laptop was having issues and now needs to be looked at/fixed for THE ENTIRETY OF BREAK. I'm using the desktop, which is better than nothing, but the keyboard is absolute shit and basically Idk if I'll be getting as many chapters out over break as I wanted to ;-; hopefully it'll be fixed for New Years or I'm just gonna sleep on my regular time (why else would I stay up?).**

 **Anyway, now that that's said, sorry for this stupidly short chapter ._. I took a lotta liberties with this one. It's horrendously pointless I'm sorry! DX**

* * *

 **Day 10: snowed in**

"Toby, what the hell are you talking about?"

The ball of energy bounced up and down in his seat as his three closest friends watched the computer boot up. He glanced over to Chico, who was sitting on the couch next to Jack, with a wide grin. "Oh you'll see it's really awesome I'm already part way into my second run but it's still amazing and you'll love the characters there's this lesbian fish who's totally in love with a weeaboo dinosaur and two guards thatkindofremindmeofmeandFred and-"

"Toby," Jack cut in once more before the boy could spoil anymore (well, any more than the little they actually understood). He rose to look at the screen.

The boy chuckled a bit awkwardly before clicking on the small heart icon, thus booting up his game. After some time, mostly going through the tittle screen as Frederick insisted on going through the story it revealed, a small, pixelated figure appeared onscreen with the snowy scenery loading around it. There were a few buildings surrounding the player character as eerily slow music played in the background, though none of them with people.

"Is this a horror game?" Chico asked, standing up so they could get a better view.

Toby smiled as his character moved straight past a couple more homes. "It can be it depends. I'm doing a genocide run which means I have to kill everything and I mean _everything."_

Frederick was the last to approach. He watched for a moment before asking, "Don't you normally do that in RPGs?" That's what it looked like, after all- an RPG.

"Yup, but not in this one! This one you don't have to kill anyone not even the psycho flower that's stalking you it's really awesome!"

The teens glanced between each other, thinking just about the same thing between all of them, " _What a weird game."_

Soon enough, the rabbit lover had made his way into a fight with some kind of seemingly egotistical skeleton, and soon enough, he had exited it. Well...it wasn't too much of a fight, really, considering the skeleton had refused to fight and Toby's heart shattered at the thought of destroying his favorite character. Thus, the murdering spree had come to an end (though not without a few tears being shed from...one of them).  
"Guys look!" he exclaimed once the "fight" had ended. "I'm still alive! Papyrus just wanted to give me a hug guys isn't that great!"

A murderer getting a hug of redemption from an apparently narcissistic skeleton? It probably would've been if any of the other three teens were a bit more attached to the characters, or at least the severity of what Toby referred to as a "genocide run." No, no; instead, they just kind of shrugged.

Upon seeing his friends being unresponsive, Toby decided to follow in his favorite character's brother's footsteps. "Y'know, the name of the town is really fitting with all the snow around it. I'd hate to live there!"

Jack blinked a few times, as did the rest of them. "Uh, why?"

"The name is _Snowdin!_ "

...Footsteps take too long to follow in.


	11. Quilts

**Day 11 - quilts**

It wasn't the first time since coming home that Ben had awoken to the sound of his brother crying during the night. The old wood clock outside of Ben's room held its big hand at the two this time, and while it was just a _bit_ too high for him to read (not that he really could anyway), he could certainly tell from the lack of sun that it was either very late at night or very early in the morning.

With a yawn, Ben shuffled his little feet out of his room and towards the staircase, the velvet plastered on the wooden stairs feeling soft against his smooth skin. Freddybear, naturally, was being dragged along, and thankfully couldn't feel it when his attachment banged him against the stairs as the kid was crawling on all fours. Sure, Ben could walk. That wouldn't help him get there fast, though.

It seemed like forever had passed when he finally made it to the top. Though he no longer heard the crying, Ben knew better than to assume it had stopped. Jack got like that a lot- screaming and then crying really quietly. It was kind of like how Ben cried, only with a loud yelp at the beginning and no pleas to stop. The child rose to his feet, repositioned the Fredbear plush against his chest and carefully ran down the hallway, doing his best to be quiet. Thankfully, no one was there that really cared to catch him, since this was a four-year-old's version of stealthing. He almost ran into one of the nightstands in the hall. ...Almost.

Plushtrap. That's what he remembered Jack calling the little stuffed rabbit that sat at the end of the hall. He also recalled overhearing that it was there to keep Jack safe when he was younger, so maybe it would work again now. He lifted up the golden rabbit from off its unusual spot on the floor and hurried over to his brother's left door, jiggling the knob once more to open it.

Inside, Jackson was once more positioned in front of his bed, flashlight in hand and facing the closet opposite him. Beside him was their father, the more feminine one, with soft black hair that almost touched his eldest son's head as that head lay against his chest while Scott's hand graced his son's back in soothing circles.

"H-hey, Jackie, uh, you're okay… The n-nightmares...they can't get you."

It didn't seem to stop tears rolling out of Jackie's golden eyes, but it at least reduced his quiet sobs to sniffles.

"Jackie?" Ben called as he toddled into the room.

The older of the two looked up to give his son a small smile before waving him over. It didn't take a second thought for the younger to hurry over towards his older brother. As soon as he had made it, Ben crawled his way into his brother's lap to give the boy a nice big hug.

Scott smiled warmly at the sight "See, Jackie? He loves you. D-don't you, Ben?"

Ben reached up his hand, attempting to pull the hair out of Jack's wet face as a sign of comfort. "Me and Freddybear love you this much!" Though it was evident from the lack of hand gesture that Ben didn't quite understand the concept of "this much," it was still a sweet thing to say, and the muscles in Jackson's shoulders began to relax a little.

Of course, it helped that Scott had moved his hands to Jack's neck and tried rubbing it comfortingly, succeeding mostly because of his fatherly status. The teen had leaned into his father's touch, still trying to stop the tears while pulling his brother closer. The fox might get them. The fox might get them if he didn't. And of course, that was all being thought while staring at the Foxy head that he kept in his closet. In the nightmares, it was nothing more than a plushie. He'd given that plushie to Ben, though, and replaced it with a mask obtained at the restaurant and a head from his "purple daddy," who always came home with broken parts.

Actually, there _was_ something else in there- the Toy Foxy plush his sister had left while she was going through his clothes. That was...one of the changes of his nightmares.

That's when the little golden rabbit resting in Ben's arms caught his phone dad's eyes. "Ben, is that, uh…?

"It's Plushtrap," the child said, holding it out for his father to look at, but Jack ripped the thing out of his brother's hands before the exchange could be completed. The older cuddled his plush rabbit tightly to his chest, right next to Ben and Freddybear. He apparently had three things to hug now.

Scott smiled as he saw his eldest son begin to calm down. It was funny, really, that after all those years, a stuffed animal could help the teen, but he wasn't complaining. What mattered was that the nightmare had been subdued for the night and Jack's eyes were slowly drooping shut once more. The phone dad glided his hand over his son's head to pet the boy and stop small amounts of bangs from landing in his eyes. "You'll be okay, Jackie. We...we'll protect you."

"We'll protect you," Ben repeated quite proudly. Though he had no idea what the context of that phrase was supposed to mean, Phone Daddy had said it, so he should too!

A small smile crept over the oldest son's face as he rubbed his hands over both his brother's and his plush's back. The warmth of yet another body had finally gotten to him, and Jack felt himself relax into his father's arms. Similarly to his brother, at that moment, he wanted nothing more than a sense of security, and the two family members combined with his old stuffed animal were more than providing it.

"Okay, uh, we're gonna put you down in bed now." Scott tried to make his voice as calming as he could, and thankfully, the fatherly status once more came into play. Jack released his grip on his little brother (albeit a bit reluctantly) and shifted the entirety of his tired weight unto his dad.

Said man then stood up after his son was positioned in a way that the boy would not fall. It was a bit difficult, sure, but a loving gesture none-the-less and simple enough when the bed was right behind them. He set Jackie down gently against the pillow, running his hands through the boy's hair and planting a soft kiss on his forehead as he would every night that Ben woke up screaming. Only, that was before The Incident. Now it was every night that Jack woke up the same way.

"Good night, Jackie. We're not gonna let those, uh, those things come in tonight. Plushtrap will stop them, too."

Oh come on, now! He wasn't four! He wasn't going to just believe everything his father said, no matter how absurd! There were things he knew couldn't happen and protecting someone from their own dreams was one of them! ...But then again, even as a thirteen-year-old, there was something deep down inside that felt comforted by those words. Half asleep, Jack reached his arms up to embrace his father, but just for a moment. After all, he wasn't a softie or anything. No way!

Ben had shuffled over to his brother's bedside by that point and reached his tiny hand up to grab hold of Jackie's own. Since the hug had stopped shortly after it began, Jack was now back on the pillow and looked over at Ben with just the slightest amount of red on his cheeks.

"I love you," Ben said in his young, high-pitched voice and with the brightest smile he could bear. The latter seemed to be a bit contagious, as it has spread not only to Jack but their father as well, who reached down to smooth over his younger child's bedhead.

If the light were just a _little_ brighter, they could've seen Jack's eyes sparkle as he reached over to wrap Ben up in his arms, too, this time longer than his father. He felt his heartbeat in his chest, but it was going at just the right pace (unlike before) and Jack's smile returned. "I love you, too," he whispered, perhaps with a bit less energy than Ben, but most certainly with the same- if not, more- meaning.

It wasn't long before Jack was fast asleep and Ben was being cradled in his father's arms. He swung his legs a few times, which were dangling over Scott's arm, as the dad used his elbow to shut Jack's door. He then smiled down at his son and would've made some sort of appreciated gesture as they walked down the halls, were both his arms not taken.

"Ben, I-I'm proud of you."

"You're proud of me," Ben repeated with a smile, having little to no understanding of what that even meant.

The phone dad chuckled and continued down the staircase, stopping only upon reaching Ben's bed. The same procedure was carried out with him being tucked in, kissed on the forehead and all. Right as Scott turned to leave, however, the kid stopped him.

"Why does Jackie like Plushtrap so much?" From what Ben could tell, there wasn't a ghost inside the toy or anything. Freddybear didn't tell him anything about talking to the rabbit, and Freddybear told him _everything_ about ghosts...or, at least, everything the ghost knew, anyway (which wasn't all that much despite being one himself).

Scott faced his youngest once more. He had a single sentence explanation for that, but it probably wasn't going to be understood too well by the four-year-old, so he sat down on the foot of the bed, ready to give a somewhat lengthy explanation. "It's the stuffed animal his brother gave him before he got adopted."

What? Adopted? "But I'm Jackie's brother."

Scott sighed. Yup. That's kind of what he was expecting, to be honest. Gently, the phone guy placed his hand around his son's own and pulled it toward him. "You know you're not his biological brother."

"Bio...logeka..l?"

"B-biological brothers are brothers with...with the same mommy and daddy."

That explanation really didn't seem to help, though, if the look on Ben's face was of any signification. "But we don't have a mommy."

"Well...that is true...kind of…" How was he supposed to say this? "See, uh, only a girl and a boy can make a baby. But sometimes...sometimes they can't keep the baby, and they put it in a special house with other babies that, uh, couldn't be kept. Then two boys, like me and Purple Daddy, come along and pick one they want." That made sense, right?

"Ohh…" Apparently it did for the child, or at least, Scott thought so.

"But, uh, someone picked Jack's brother before we got there." In fact, that's kind of why Scott thought the kid had first bullied Ben. Jack didn't really bother his sister all that much, after all, but every time someone called Ben his brother, he'd flip out. That at least implied it.

"Jack had a mommy and a daddy before you?"

The phone dad nodded. "So did Vanessa. So did you."

Ben's shimmering black eyes widened. "I had a mommy?" He didn't really have much of an idea what that felt like or any friends to compare it to, but it sounded wonderful...to have a mother...

His father chuckled. "Yeah." He remembered meeting the parents, as most couples usually did with that particular adoption program. Both Ben and Vanessa's biological parents didn't want to give up their child but simply couldn't afford to keep them. Scott and Mason had arranged to have them visit on holidays and such, but neither of the sets ever bothered to call, and so the children were left with so few memories (if any at all) of their birth mother and father.

Jack, on the other hand, remembered his parents quite clearly despite being about five when they had died in a car crash. His older brother had stuck to him until the age of ten, when someone had adopted the older and Scott and Mason came in a few days later to take poor crying Jack. The kid seemed to actually like them...it was going pretty decently until others insisted that Ben was his younger brother. He didn't _have_ a younger brother!

That being said, the younger brother was left to stare wide-eyed at his father at the very thought of having a female parent. What did she look like? What did she act like? She was nice, right? So many questions swirled around his head, but the one that dominated the others and made its way out his mouth was, "Do I have a stuffed animal from Mommy?"

"No, you don't have a stuffed animal, but, uh, I think there's something around here she left you."

Something? To a four-year-old, _anything_ would've been cool. Benjamin watched intently as his father reached over into the child's dresser to pull out a large, black-and-white checkered quilt. He then turned back to Ben with a large grin on his face.

"This was the blanket you were dropped off in."

Ben, of course, was in absolute awe from the object. His arms extended to grab hold of the quilt, though it was a bit on the big side for his tiny strength and mostly just fell on the floor.

"It's...heavy!"

Scott chuckled. Yeah, it was a pretty heavy quilt. The phone guy kind of assumed he'd end up having to place it on the bed, which he did, and Ben smiled at him.

"And what are you smiling at?"

Ben pulled his quilt up to his neck (completely drowning Freddybear) before answering. "I don't know Mommy, but I love you, Daddy!"

"I love you too, Ben," the phone dad replied, bending down to kiss his youngest on the forehead.

* * *

 **Hey, so, happy New Year's. I guess.**

 **Mine's been mixed. I got my laptop back early :D ...and got five hours of sleep due to vomiting twice ._. I got sick last in our house. It lasted the shortest out of the five of us and apparently was the weakest, so that's good, but it was still freakin' uncomfortable and made my brain go mushy. I tried writing, heh, that sucked. You can thank that for the crap ending in this chapter. I also tried listening to music, which made me want to throw up more. When you're addicted to music, having it cause you distress is not fun ._.**

 **As a side note, I'd like to thank my four-year-old sister for being a great model for Ben's behavior. Though they're two pretty different people (and she'll probably never read this story XD), she's excellent for giving an idea of what four-year-olds can understand and such. Thanks, Shayna!**

 **She also said the most adorable thing after throwing up so much. Shayna toddled up to my dad after about...I think the fourth time? and went, "Daddy, I want it to stop..." It was so freakin' adorable and heart shattering. You better believe that's gonna be in an up-and-coming chapter.**

 **Now, what you guys probably care about, the poll. So far, the total is 8 to 5 with happy in the lead, but _three people_ have used the actual poll on my profile! You guys know you can get _two_ votes if you leave a comment  and vote in the poll. Just sayin'. ****T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶m̶i̶g̶h̶t̶b̶e̶a̶s̶u̶r̶p̶r̶i̶s̶e̶i̶f̶i̶t̶t̶i̶e̶s̶j̶u̶s̶t̶s̶a̶y̶i̶n̶'̶.̶**

 **As for you guys! I want to thank everyone who has read so far. You guys are flippin' awesome! And motivation, too; I hope you realize that (without motivation, I...tend to fall behind...and drop projects...hehe). Every favorite, follow, or just review saying you like it helps!**

 **And last but not least, I know the holidays have passed, but I hope the glow remains long enough for you guys to read 'til the end!**

 **(and I might be thinking about doing an ask account for the characters sooooooo if anyone likes the idea you better freakin' tell me or it probably won't happen!)**


	12. Mistletoe (or just smoochies)

**Hey okay so sorry if there's some errors I'm in a hurry and kind of really wanted to post this before Monday so here we are!**

 **A few things:**

 **1) If anyone can make a better summary, that'd be great! Technically a contest, I guess? Uh, not much of one, though. I'll give credit in the chapter after I change it. It must have something similar to "vote for the ending" in it, as well as the title of the day. That all has to fit into the character limit. So, uh, yeah...**

 **2) To toy cupcakes: Remember when I said you'd have to wait until day 13? Well, uh, I meant day 12. ...Happy birthday! :D**

* * *

 **Day 12: mistletoe (or just plain smoochies)**

There are a lot of interesting things that happen during the month of December when you're four, and having your brother's friend string up a bunch of strange leaves all over your house is probably one of them.

"What's that?" Ben asked as Toby stuck one up by the kitchen door. There were three in total- one at the bottom of the stairs, one in the middle of the hall (just outside Ben's door) and the final now strung above the kitchen's entrance. It was just a bunch of leaves with red ribbon...more decorations?

Toby chuckled, stepping back a bit to admire his work. "It's called mistletoe!"

"Mistletoe?" The child had never heard that before, and it intrigued him, just a bit.

"Yeah in December you hang up mistletoe. Wanna know why?"

As the child nodded, Toby leaned in so that his voice could lower without Ben missing what he said. "Mistletoe is magickal."

Ben's eyes widened at the sound of that. "Magickal?" He remembered hearing that on one of the T.V. shows Purple Daddy would play for him, and it always was followed with some kind of colorful energy that made stuff move or other things that Ben wished he could do. With that thought, he looked up at the mistletoe, reaching up to grab it but being a bit disappointed when realization struck that it was unreachable.

"Hey don't grab it it has to stay up there to be magickal!" Toby grabbed the kid's hand to lower it down, a bit rougher than what Jack had done, maybe, but nowhere near enough to hurt him.

Ben frowned, just a bit. "Why is it magick?"

This seemed to make Toby smile even more. "It's magickal 'cause whoever stands underneath it has to kiss!"

The child looked up from his place in the doorframe and giggled, if only a bit. "We're under it!"

"Hehe yeah we are guess you gotta give me a kiss!"

Ben's small laughter increased as he lifted his arms up, Toby bending down to eye level in response. He then leaned forward and gave the older a quick kiss on the cheek, his laughter and four-year-old ability making for a very chuckle-worthy experience, which of course, Toby fully endorsed.

"Hey look it works I got you to kiss me!" the rabbit-lover exclaimed, reaching his hand up to ruffle Ben's hair, which made the boy freeze and he quickly redrew it. "Oh Ben sorry I didn't mean to-"

Ben took a deep breath in, nodding slowly. "It's okay. I am okay."

The older blinked at first, then continued his chuckling. "Yeah you're okay. But hey it worked that's great that means the magick will work on others!"

"Others?" He paused for a moment. Other...people? The magick can work on other people? ...That makes sense! "Oh yeah! Others!" This made little Ben tighten his grip around his Fredbear plush giddily. Others! Mistletoe can make others kiss! That's so cool!

It seemed pretty contagious, as Toby's laughter increased a little bit, too. The elder rose to his feet once more and glanced upward at his work. "Well who do we get to kiss first?" He actually already had two people in mind, but the shipper wanted to see if his friend's younger brother could catch on.

Which, evidently, he didn't, and what the kid cried caused a light pink to creep across Toby's face. "You and Frederick!"

"What! No not meandFrederickhedoesn'tevenlikemethatwouldn'tworknoI mean Jack and Chico!"

The kid quietly stared the boy in the face, blinking a few times while his mind tried to wrap around what on Earth Toby had even said. He reached his hand up to let his rest against his cheek and after what felt like forever in the older, more hyper kid's mind, the latter sighed.

"Never mind just help me get your brother over here okay?"

"Okay." That seemed easy enough. All he had to do was ask, right?

Toby took a quick glance around the kitchen and then bent back down to Ben's ear. It was then that he whispered into the boy's ear, "I'm going to get Chico to help me make something. You go get Jack when I ask you to taste it. Got it?"

"Got it!"

"Good!" Toby rose to his feet, eyes turning back to the living room before shouting, "CHICO!"

Only, after a few moments, much to the older's surprise...no one came.

Toby scratched his head. Well, that was odd. Usually Chico was one of the most punctual people he knew. To top it off, when someone called for the teen, they'd coming running with the snap of a finger just to see what was going on. The fact that they weren't appearing was...odd. Very odd. With a small frown on his face, the boy began walking toward the living room where he had last seen all three of his friends, the little brother of one deciding to tag along with.

However, upon entering, the duo found neither of their targets in the room. In fact, the only source of energy from it was the still flashing television.

Ben looked up at his brother's- er, his friend with a questioning expression while tilting his head to the side. "Where's Jack and Chico and Frederick?" They'd been right there when he left!

The older of two shrugged, quickly walking over to the hallway. Maybe the'd went to check on Vanessa?

Said girl's brother frowned at that. She was out with Purple Daddy…why would anybody be down there? Ben tugged lightly on the older's leg to convey this.

"Wassup?" Toby asked, looking down at the little boy who instantly withdrew.

"Vanessa's not here."

Well, that seemed to stop the boy. So...maybe they were upstairs? Jack's room was up there; it wasn't out of the range of possibilities. With an over exaggerated sigh, Toby began to bounce over to the staircase, Ben trailing behind his heels. He glanced over toward the television just as they were about to begin their climb, then smacked right into someone's chest.

Toby turned back to see who he had smacked into and immediately blushed. Well, now he'd have to apologize to someone, which was embarrassing enough, but it was one of his friends...one in particular….

"Hey, Toby." The teen smiled warmly at his friend while taking another step forward so they were about at eye level. Frederick, if he'd taken enough to go down fully, would have been ever-so-slightly shorter than his skinnier friend. Well, actually, a lot shorter. Toby was the tall and lengthy type, much in contrast to Fred's average-height-stubby-body. The fact that Toby had run into his chest means the latter would've fallen otherwise. Now, however, they were staring at each other, one a bit awkwardly and the other just waiting for the former to make some sort of move. It'd be rational to question where everyone was, after all, and Frederick was there to explain.

However, after a few moments of silence, Ben's hands went up to his mouth and he began to giggle profusely.

Both teens turned curiously to watch him, to which he responded with, "You're under the mistletoe!"

Another silence ensued, this time filled with the taller male blushing even more so than the thought of apologizing and the shorter just giving a very, very small smile.

Ben then crawled up the stairs before he got to see anything (Freddybear didn't want to see yucky kissing, and Ben knew what would happen anyway; the mistletoe was magick!). He'd reached the top of the steps much quicker than last night since he was well past awake this time, and no longer did he need to bang his stuffed animal against the stairs on the way up. The child then began his way toward his brother's room.

Plushtrap, interestingly enough, was not only gone from his chair, but missing from the hall entirely. Though Ben didn't really pay much mind to it, that fact certainly caught Freddybear's attention.

What the child found upon entering Jackson's room was not Jack sitting in front of his bed in fear, but instead lying on it, eyes closed, and stuffed rabbit tightly held to his chest. Next to him this time was Chico, who held a warm smile across their face.

When the more awake teen had noted Benjamin standing in the room door, they waved a hand for him to come in. Of course he followed.

The child then looked over his brother for a good half second before stating, "He's sleeping."

Chico chuckled ever-so-quietly. "Yes, he's sleeping."

Shortly after, Ben began to climb his way on top of the bed to sit up right next to his brother. His brother's friend- wait, wait, his friend- was doing something...rubbing Jack's back? Oh, so it wasn't just daddys that could do that. Okay. Then Ben will try that!

Chico removed their hand when they saw Ben trying to mimic their action, albeit a bit roughly. Jack didn't seem to mind, and that was the important part.

Ben's onyx eyes trailed from his brother to his friend curiously. "Why's Jack sleeping?"

"He didn't get much sleep last night," his friend replied, folding their hands and placing them in their lap. Well, that was what Jack told them. They weren't exactly there to experience it first-hand, so they trusted that he had given the right information. Toby was the one who exaggerated things, not Jack. That probably wasn't a problem.

"Oh yeah. He had a bad dream." Ben was there! Ben remembered!

This caused Chico to raise an eyebrow, though only for a mere moment. "So you heard him have a bad dream."

"Yup. I was in his room with Phone Daddy."

That smile upon the teen's face grew as they brushed their hand against Jack's forehead, eyes still on the wide awake four-year-old. "Well I bet you helped make the bad dreams go away."

"I did," the child stated proudly while adding a small, happy giggle to it.

"Yes, well, you did a good job with it." Judging from the peaceful expression resting on Jack's face, anyway. ...Though Ben wasn't there when he fell asleep this time…

Another moment of silence went by (though much less awkward than the one with Toby and Frederick) before Ben spoke again, this time saying along the lines of, "Aww...now you won't kiss under the mistletoe!"

"What?" This, too, raised Chico's eyebrow, as they seemed to like to do that a lot to provoke people to continue on with whatever was being said.

"Toby wanted you to kiss Jack with the magick mistletoe but now he's kissing Frederick." Well, okay, that last part was still pretty cool, but Ben wanted the mistletoe to work on everyone! Now Jack was asleep and it wouldn't work on him because that's obviously how magick works.

If one was watching closely, they would've noticed a small blush cross over Chico's face, but the four-year-old didn't really care to take notice of that. Freddybear might've, but likely didn't really know much about what it implied anyway.

"So Toby was trying to get us under the mistletoe, but now he's there with Frederick…" Well, that should be an interesting thing to see. Chico already knew how the two felt anyway (or assumed they knew what the two felt anyway). That might at least give a few chuckles.

They rose from the bed, careful not to show off anything impolite or immodest and smiled back at Ben. "Could you stay here and watch Jack sleep, please, to make sure he doesn't have any more bad dreams?"

"Okay," Ben said and gave a small wave to the teen. The teen waved back before heading out towards the staircase, to which Ben then laid down next to his brother, muttering a quick, "Good night," and closing his own eyes. No, he wasn't tired, but it's what his big brother was doing, so he'd do it, too.


	13. Snowmen

**Thank you to OppsieDasi for the new summary.**

 **"The Crying Child, Ben, has been released from the hospital after having spent a few weeks in a coma, just in time for the holidays. That's great! But something just doesn't seem right in Ben's household... Based on the 31 day winter challenge on Deviantart. YOU get to vote for the ending! Day _: _"**

* * *

 **Day 13: snowmen**

His crayon danced across the page in a rapid fashion, leaving behind a black trail against the white paper. Something barely passing as a circle was left in its place and Ben smiled proudly at the work of art he had produced.

To top it off, a certain purple-clad figure watched over him as he fiddled with the crayons. An equally wide smile was placed upon his lips, though it did falter every time Ben seemed to talk to… _himself._

Ben glanced over at the Fredbear plush that was sitting next to his masterpiece. The spirit was definitely agitated by _something,_ but then again, he usually was, so that wasn't any different. The child lightly patted his toy's head before returning to his work.

After a while, the boy lifted up his hands and set the black down with a confident huff. "I'm done!"

"I see," Mason said, mentally judging the artwork's quality. "Are you sure it's finished?"

This made Ben pause for a moment. It looked pretty done. What else do snowmen have on them? He did the circles and the face...and the carrot nose...and the buttons! What else was left?

"You could start with a hat," the purple guy answered upon noticing his son's facial expression. Mason watched as the latter picked up a purple coloring utensil and began to scribble some sort of circular rectangle atop the snowman's head, a small, bow-like shape appearing on its abdomen shortly after.

"And who might that be?" Mason asked, feeling as though he had seen the character before…

"He's Freddybear Snowman," the child proclaimed proudly. Mason stared back down at the plush with what would've been a small chuckle were it not for the fact that an intense feeling of anger seemed to emanate from it. He simply shrugged this off. It was just a stuffed animal…

Turning his attention back to the portrait, Mason let loose a wide smile. "Why, this looks absolutely astounding, Benjamin!" he lied. "I do believe we should hang this on our refrigerator, should we not?"

Ben nodded. That's awesome! His picture was going on the _fridge!_ Azlgepxhiksgpnutrmpzlqe so cool! The child leapt up from his seat and scurried over toward the kitchen, but stopped upon seeing a few papers up on it already.

His father really did chuckle at that. "Don't worry, we will find a place for your magnificent masterpiece." With focused eyes, the purple guy took his son's art and scanned over for an open spot. Hmm…mostly appointment times and such. Those were important papers; that simply wouldn't do.

Well, there was one open spot left that didn't have it hanging off the side. Carefully, Mason clicked two magnets onto the machine so that Ben's picture hung directly on top of Jack's report card.

Ben didn't seem to notice that his art was now concealing the paper his brother was so proud of. What his attention was occupied by was Alex, who had decided to pop out of his usual plush body. The spirit's eyes were narrowed at Benjamin's purple-clad father, almost as if angered by him.

But that's silly. What was there to be angry about? Ben got his picture on the refrigerator!

* * *

 **Every other letter.**


	14. Hot Baths

**Day 14 - hot baths**

"What did you do this time?"

Jack flinched, his hand grasping the smaller one of his screaming brother, when his dad spit out acidic words. "I-I didn't do anythin-"

"Such a likely story." Mason cut him off as he reached for Ben, roughly grabbing the child out of Jack's hands but then picking him up and lightly pressing the child's head against his chest. His voice had softened by the time he spoke again. "Please, tell me your woes."

The child only continued to cry as he buried further into his father.

"Come now, Benjamin. What did Jackson do?"

This seemed to deplete the older brother's confidence a bit as his shoulders slumped. "I didn't do-"

"Please, Benjamin." Mason ran his hand soothingly along the younger child's back, beginning to leave the room.

Jack began trailing after his father as they exited the kitchen… "Dad, I didn-"

"I may punish it if you tell me what's wrong." ...but only for the first few steps. After that, Jack just stopped walking entirely. He wouldn't get any words in, would he? There was no point in even talking… Jack didn't really deserve the attention, anyway.

Back in the living room, Mason was setting his youngest down on the couch to examine him. There didn't seem to be anything wrong physical- oh! On the child's knee was a rather large gash that seemed to be trickling out (thankfully) small amounts of crimson liquid. The father dashed off to the bathroom while his son screamed out in pain on the couch, Jackson too afraid to leave the kitchen.

When Mason returned, he had brought with him a large, rectangular white box complete with a red cross on top. The purple guy opened the lid while kneeling down next to his son and took a few smaller containers out of it after setting it on the empty side of the couch.

"Now there is a possibility that this could sting quite a bit," Mason warned, dabbing some of the liquid onto a cotton ball. His voice was much gentler than it had been a few moments before and that seemed to help his child immensely in an effort to get Ben to stop shrieking, though the child still let plenty of tears trickle down his cheeks.

"1…" Mason then began counting down as a means of preparing the child for what was to come. "2…"

When the final number had been said a few moments later, Ben let out another scream, this time accompanied by the word, "STOP!" and much squirming. He then had a hand placed over his stomach in an attempt to be calmed.

"I did warn you that it would sting. Be patient. The pain is what means it is working."

Maybe that was fine reasoning for an adult, but Ben was four. Tears continued to pour out of his eyes like it were an olympic event, though at least he stopped screaming.

"Shhh…" The father then grabbed a thin piece of plastic and peeled it back to reveal the soft, peachy fabric. "I'm going to put a bandaid on now, alright?"

The child didn't respond, so after a few moments, Mason just pressed the fabric down anyway, trying his best not to mess up with Ben flinching away.

However, the child was still crying.

"Benjamin? Please stop your tears from falling. There really is no reason that you should continue to cry; your wound has been tended to and the chances of it becoming infected are extremely, extremely thin."

That didn't seem to matter much, though, so Mason just sighed. What was it that his husband would have done in a situation like this? Scott was the better one with children. He likely would've-

The thoughts swarming through the father's head were cut short when his child had reached out for his arm out towards the man and pleaded with wide eyes, "Kiss my booboo, Daddy?"

-..yes, that's exactly what Scott would have done, unfortunately.

The man let out a small sigh through his nose. One hand came up to his forehead as he asked, "Is that really necessary?"

His son nodded, and Mason mentally shuddered at the thought of touching another human being. _Affectionately_ at that. In fact, it was mostly the second that got his disapproval. The purple guy's recoil at touching others dissipates when his children are involved, however, that does not take away the disgust that comes with thinking of affectionate physical care. Only the purple guy's husband and sister held that privilege.

However, if it meant his child would stop killing his ears, Mason would give a quick kiss to the kid's knee...just this once, since Scott was not around to do it instead.

Ben squirmed a small bit as Mason's lips met his skin (and the soft fabric that was placed on top of it), but smiled happily. He even added a small giggle onto the end of it. "My booboo's all better."

His father let out an internal sigh of relief that he wouldn't have to do _that_ again. Though...there was something still nagging at him. "What occurred to cause you to get such a horrendous mark?"

The smile on the child's face seem to disappear as he recalled the event. "I was playing on the slide. I fell off... Jackie tried to catch me but he missed."

"Well, I think that calls for a bath," the man said, picking his son up in his arms and beginning to carry him up the stairs. Just the thought of his child falling down in dirt sent shivers up and down his spine. "You will require a new band-aid afterwards. As for Jackson…"

This caused Ben to frown some more. Anything his purple daddy did to Jackie ended up being bad now... He wasn't entirely sure if it was like that before he got bit, but it sure was now, and it made Jackie cry a lot...Ben hated seeing his older brother cry. Big boys didn't cry; that's something Jackie had told him specially!

"Daddy?" Ben asked which caused his father to glance down as a response. "Why are you so mean to Jackie?"

This made the man stop about halfway away from his destination. "I am not being "mean"; I'm simply giving that _thing_ what it deserves as proper punishment."

"But he didn't hurt me."

Mason sighed, setting his child down on the steps to speak and bending down so that their eyes were at level. "Benjamin, Jackson has hurt you a lot. It kicked you, it stole your food, it made you scared and cry...it even made you sleep for a very long time with those nightmares."

That was true, Ben supposed, but he wasn't being mean anymore. "Jackie gets sad when I'm sad! And that's…" That's good, right? Phone Daddy told him that means Jackie really loves him, so it _has_ to be good!

"He's not sad at all! He just doesn't want to appear as a heartless bastard!"

Ben froze. Never had the man spoken to his youngest in such a harsh tone before. It was rather terrifying if Ben's sharp recoil served as any indicator.

The man bit his tongue at the sight and sighed. "I will not hurt you, Benjamin. I will never hurt you."

Though Freddybear was practically screaming at the child otherwise. Alex had popped out of his golden plush body to sit next to Ben and whisper in the child's ear about Mason...doing things to him, those of which made Ben shuddered. The next thing he knew, the child was sprinting off for the bathtub, a small, a quiet, "Don't squish me!" escaping his lips in the process.

Mason would've followed shortly behind him if it were not for the fact that he had heard the sound of the front door opening.

"Hello, hello?" called the person that had entered. His cheerful voice split through the air and sharply struck into the denseness that had filled it before.

"Thank goodness!" the purple-lover exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. " _You_ may take care of this situation!"

* * *

 **A few things; please look over them:**

 **-I opened up an ask account guys!** **art/Ask-the-FNaF-4-Gang-584837520**

 **(if the link doesn't work, just look up "KuraiTsukiMajutsu" on DeviantArt. The picture _should_ be in my gallery, labeled as, "Ask the FNaF 4 Gang")**

 **I'm in my drawing phase right now. Don't worry, I'm still working on this fic! The updates are just slower 'cause I want to draw more. Sorry 'bout that.**

 **-FOR ALL THOSE CURIOUS: The family structures in this story and in 50 Shades of Springguard are the same. The timelines...well, every chapter in 50SoS is in a completely different timeline, so that's not really possible...BUT! The family structures are the same. Like how the Phone Dude says Plushtrap belongs to his bro-...well, maybe I shouldn't reveal that much quite yet.**

 **-I'm considering whether or not on adding 'minor yaoi' in the summary. After all, there is a small bit of light yaoi in here (Ben has two dads, after all). However, I don't want to scare people off just because there's a small bit of romance between two guys. What do you guys think? Will it attract more people or scare them away?**

 **-Finally, the thing you guys probably care about...the polls.**

 **Happy- 12 (7 comments, 5 from poll)**

 **Twisted- 7 (4 comments, 3 from poll)**

 **Oh my. Twisted is very far behind ._.**

 **I feel like I've drilled this in enough, but I'll say it again! ...You guys can vote twice. Once in a comment and once in a poll. I don't count two comments from the same person as the same thing because _I can't see who votes in the poll_. It's just to keep it fair. One comment and one poll.**

 **Thank you!**


	15. Winter Hats and Mittens

**Day 15 - winter hats and mittens**

Mason chuckled. Though kids weren't exactly his favorite thing in the world, he had to admit, the four-year-old in front of him looked awfully adorable with that oversized hat pulled over his head. It cloaked his beautiful black eyes, which the purple guy had to fiddle with just to see. Ben's hair was not helping in the least.

The child then flashed his father a wide grin before pulling the hat down further and giggling like a little schoolgirl. It hadn't snowed in a while, yet what was left behind was still a little bit stuck to the ground, some of which Ben had reached down to pick up with his tiny, child-sized mittens.

"Daddy!" he called in a teasing voice, swinging his arm back with the snow in his hand. "I got a snowball!"

"Oh dear," Mason said through his chuckling. The man stood from his crouched position and took a small step back away from his son. Only a small one, though. He certainly wouldn't want the child to feel _too_ much superiority. "I suppose I'll have to head inside before I am bombarded with-"

The man was cut off as a chunk of snow went flying at him, though it fell short and plopped down with a wet slushy sound no more than half a foot away from its thrower. It did, however, cause a large grin to come forth from the man as he bent down to scoop up a handful himself.

"I do hope you are prepared for this shot," Mason warned, flinging a nearly perfect sphere at his child. There may have been a bit much to pelt a four-year-old with, but Ben could only giggle as he received its force.

"Ow!" he cried through the laughter. "I've been hit!"

Mason only tsk-tsked while reaching for another handful. "Ah, Benjamin. You'll have to do better than that if you ever plan on protecting yourself from criminals."

The child gasped as another snowball was chucked before he could have a chance to regain himself. This expression turned sour when the snow met his overly-large hat and sent it tumbling to the ground. Ben frowned immensely, eyes already starting to water at his lost garment.

Mason, on the other hand, strained to resist rolling his eyes. There was no reason the child could not just bend down and put it back on. Why his youngest was his favorite, the man would never know, but it did send a stab at his heart every time his son began to tear up (especially after The Incident), and so he found himself bending back down to scoop the child up into his arms.

"Sh...Benjamin, you will be alright, don't worry."

"But...my hat's gone..." The kid sniffled through his tears.

Mason sighed. "Yes, but we need to simply pick it back up…"

He stopped when his whitish eyes locked on the garment. It...was it always on the bush? The thing certainly seemed to stick in Mason's memory as lying on the cold ground… He wouldn't have to bend down to reach it now, no, but it hadn't moved on its own…

Cautiously, the father reached an arm out (no longer did he need to bend to get it) and lifted the hat into the air, examining it only for a quick moment before guiding it to his son's head. Once again the material draped down too far, but neither of the two seemed to mind; the smaller was just content with having its fabric now cover his soft hair while the older was far more interested in how its location before placing it on top of Ben had escaped his memory.

Unfortunately for him, the reason for it moving spots was visible only to his son at that point in time. The child would glance over at said source and smile. "Thank you, Alex," he said, reaching his hand out for the ghost but falling short.

It didn't matter. Alex would smile back, reach out his hand to meet Ben's and restrain the urge to laugh. It felt like old times, in a way. Sure, Mason was older now...a lot older, but the joy was still there. It's funny how despite everything that's happened, deep down, Alex still couldn't find himself to hate the guy. Perhaps the older one's kid was starting to get to him, what with the sympathy and love and all.

"Alex?" Mason blinked a few times. Of course Ben had to name his imaginary friend Alex. Sure, the Alex Mason knew had died quite a while ago, but when the child's life had ended _that_ way, well...it couldn't help but haunt him. Something like that...it just wasn't forgettable. No matter how many bottles he drank.

"Yeah," Ben answered. "Alex is my best friend."

While having the best friend's name as Alex was somewhat chilling, it really didn't prove much. All that could be said was having your imaginary friend as your best (and only, really, unless you wanted to count Ben's stuffed animals or those awful excuses for teenagers) was that that's just sad.

Either way, the father nodded. He didn't like to see his child become upset by any means, so that was the only feasible option. "I see. I do believe that Alex would want to play with Freddybear now." That should be a simple enough way to get rid of this 'friend'.

Ben, however, scrunched his face in confusion. "But Alex _is_ Freddybear." How could he want to play with himself? That didn't make any sense!

At this, the man would let out a laugh. That made much more sense! So the child was just making up a character for his stuffed bear so that in places he couldn't carry the thing around, it would still be with him. How adorable. His grip around his child tightened ever-so-slightly- just enough to be classified as a hug, but not so much as to set off his disgust of affection.

"Benjamin, you certainly have an imagination."

Both children- dead and alive- frowned at this. The one Mason could actually hear decided to speak, but not in the happy tone of voice he held earlier. It had been replaced with one of insistence, one that conveyed an upset at the lack of trust held in him. "But Alex is real. He's standing right next to us."

Alex sighed. No, ghosts didn't breath, but it was still a sound that could be made if one listened carefully enough. "He can't hear or see me even when I'm not in Freddybear. I already told you this."

"Oh yeah, he can't."

Mason cocked his head to the side just slightly. "Who are you speaking of and what is it he cannot do?"

The ghost only shook his head. "Tell him...tell him I'm still here. Tell him I can't move on yet."

Confused now more than ever, Ben turned his attention away from his friend and toward his father, who mirrored this emotion to a lesser degree. "Alex says he's still here. He can't move on. What does that mean?"

Mason froze. Alright...that certainly hadn't been expected.

"Tell him…" Alex continued, now balling his hands up into fists and taking on a more serious expression. "Tell him I'm still here and he's going to be sorry I stuck around!"

"He's still here and you're gonna be sorry he stuck around!" Ben mimicked in his angry four-year-old voice, however quickly let that faux anger melt away into more curiosity around the situation. "Why are you gonna be sorry?"

The purple man shook his head after a moment to take this in. "Benjamin. We need to get you gloves."

This didn't seem to help Ben's confusion, but the purple guy was already making his way inside. "I already have gloves. See?" Just to prove it, he held up his tiny four-year-old fingers in front of his father's face.

"Then we'll get you another pair."

* * *

 **See? I told you guys I wasn't dead.**

 **Also, I _think_ I'm coming back into my writing phase now...don't quote me on that.**


	16. Shaking From the Cold

**Day 16 - shaking from the cold**

Jack threw his arm up to block the breath of air from traveling far. Ow, that one hurt. It wasn't the first cough to tear up his lungs, but it was the most effective so far. He stumbled with the knob a bit before swinging open the back door, shivering more as the warmth showed just how cold he really was. Oh, jeez, he was shivering, wasn't he? Quite a bit, actually. His black boots trembled as his legs tried to regain warmth. They stung a bit, but Jack was tough! Nothing the boy couldn't handle.

He frowned upon seeing a poorly-drawn picture of a snowman(bear?) cover up his 'A', but quickly shook his head. No, no, wasn't worth your time… just keep going.

So next Jack would pass through the living room, smiling at his phone father before ascending the staircase up to his own room, traveling along the left hall and past the chair where Plushtrap would normally be seated. Upon reaching the door, he instinctively held his ear to the open crack before confirming that nothing was behind it and popping inside, thumb pressing against his palm in a subconscious effort to mimic his dreams.

The teen slowly slipped underneath the covers of his bed, taking both the golden rabbit and the Freddy plush into his arms. Now he was starting to regret having given his Foxy one to Ben… It made the kid happy, though...even without a head.

With a few deep breaths in and the warmth returning to him from being under the covers, Jackson looked up at the guitar that was hanging from his wall. He hadn't touched that in quite a while, oddly enough. It must have been well before Ben came out of the hospital. A memory of playing it on the second day his brother was there came to mind, but none after.

He slipped back out of bed and reached for the wooden instrument, his height thankfully aiding in completing the task. When it had been successfully strapped around his shoulders, the boy opened up his shirt drawer and dug around until he'd found one of his picks to play with. He then sat back down in bed and strummed the pick along the strings.

 _Still in tune,_ Jack thought as he managed to pick out a few familiar notes. It was funny how he hadn't wrote down the song once, yet it was still so fresh in his memory.

"I shouldn't have scared you," his throat echoed. It probably would have sounded better for Fred or Chico to sing, but they weren't here right now, and it just didn't quite hit as close to home with them.

"I shouldn't have locked you in the store room." Jack...wasn't the best singer in the world, but he could write the songs, and that was more than any of the other three could say.

"I shouldn't have put you in that bear," Yeah, now the words were coming back. Maybe he should write it down this time. Phone Dad liked it...maybe others would too?

" 'cause now we're both so scared," Why would anyone like his songs? They were awful. He'd heard people say so. ...he did hear people say so, right? Funny, he couldn't remember who anymore.

Jack felt a few tears begin to well up but bit them back. He was too tough to cry.

"And I don't want to loose you."

The teen glanced up as he saw his little brother come scurrying into the room. A smile spread across his face, even at seeing both the golden bear and headless Foxy in his arms. Of course, the headless one had a poorly-sewn grey sweater on, but the fact that Ben had kept it on him was touching enough. He didn't really expect the kid to keep any of them on, so the fact that the only stuffy to have the clothing articles removed caused him to bring one of his hands up to his chest and the smile across his face to widen.

"Hey, buddy," Jack greeted as Ben climbed up onto the bed with his fox and bear stuffed animal. "You...you didn't hear me singing, did you?" That'd be just downright embarrassing.

Ben shook his head. "I heard the guitar."

Ah, okay. The guitar was understandable. It wasn't exactly a quiet instrument, and his doors never really shut right, so if Ben had happened to be walking by, he could easily hear the thing.

The child then tapped a finger on the guitar twice and smiled. "Can you sing?"

"No," Jack chuckled. "Not really."

"Aw…"

Seeing the pout on his brother's adorable face caused Jack to sigh, shaking his head. "I mean, I can if you really want me to, just not in front of anyone."

"Can you sing?"

The older brother frowned before nodding slowly. "Yeah, I can sing…"

"Sing!" the younger cried, his face perking up as he rose to his feet, still on the bed. "Sing!"

Jackie couldn't say no to that smile, could he? Of course not. So, he brought up his guitar, gave it a little strum, and began to play.

"You're always so nice," he began. "And I'm alway so mean."

Ben kneeled down next to his brother, then slid onto a regular sitting position.

"I knew you were afraid of those big machines."

He moved closer to his big brother, the little leg touching the larger one.

"And I think and wonder about what I did."

The child tilted his head up so he could see his brother's face beginning to tear up once more.

"I'm so sorry I hurt you, kid."

Once the stanza was finished, Ben wrapped his small arms as far as he could around Jack's torso without letting go of his stuffies. It wasn't far, but at least it made the older one smile.

"I love you, Jackie," he said, letting his head bury against his older brother's shirt.

This seemed to cause the smile on the older one increase as he took one arm off of the guitar and wrapped it around the child, pulling him in closer. "I love you too, Ben," he said, blinking away the small amount of water that had accumulated while he was singing. This...this was okay. He was okay with this. Ben was okay, Jack was okay, the family was okay...everyone was okay.

A door slammed open, signaling the mechanic returning from work.

...Except, everything wasn't okay.

But it could be for now.

* * *

 **Go look up 'A Brother's Sorrow' by Adam Lambert.**


	17. Shoveling Snow

**Day 17 - snow shoveling**

The little girl stuck her tongue out as she dug a shovel into the heaping pile of snow, only to quickly pull it back in. Ah, even her tongue was going to freeze! Lovely…

"This is stupid," she claimed, spearing the snow with her small shovel and crossing her arms. "I'm cold and tired. I'm going inside!"

"But the snow's not gone," her brother replied as he tried to give her a small tug on the arm, though her being four years older, having little to no effect.

"I don't care! I'm cold and hungry and tired! I'm going to get some hot chocolate."

"Vanessa the snow's not gone!"

She didn't seem to notice the child tearing up as she ripped her arm away. The girl then stomped her large, bulky boots against the white pavement and toward the front door.

The four-year-old then collapsed onto said pavement. His snowpants took in most of the cold, however it still made him just the slightest bit uncomfortable. This, combined with the fact that his sister was not doing what their parents had told them to do, caused the tears to begin pouring out of his eyes, the only person around him taking notice being his father.

It would take a few moments, but eventually Scott would spot his son sitting on the floor and rubbing his eyes profusely. The father quickly rushed over to his son, dropping his shovel against the snow and promptly scooping the boy up.

"Ben, what's wrong?"

"Vanessa left us!" the child wailed, throwing his head onto his father's chest and letting the tears drip onto the cold red coat.

"Oh, Ben…" Scott's hand wrapped around his child's neck and ever-so-gently pressed the kid's head against his body. "She just went inside. She's okay."

"But...but…" He pulled back, rubbing profusely at his eyes, the cold from his mittens only seeming to make more tears form. "You said to stay out here…"

Scott paused. "Yeah, but, uh, she can take a break if she wants."

The child tilted his head to the side. "A break?" What was she breaking? They weren't aloud to break stuff! ...even though Jack did...a lot…

His father nodded. "Well, yeah, a break. Shoveling snow is...is a lot work."

It was? It wasn't for Ben! ...well, if you consider lifting up the same piece of snow over and over again to be shoveling. Then it was really easy! ...The hard part was finding a new place to put it.

"We can take a break if you want," the father added in as he already began to walk toward the front door.

The younger child glanced over to where his best friend stood, who still attempted to pick up the shovel that he had dropped in the snow. Ben tilted his head, watching as Alex's hand gripped around the physical object and then phased through once in motion. Come to think of it, that always happened when Freddybear tried to pick something up. Couldn't he pick things up? Freddybear _did_ say that he was dead...

That didn't really matter at the moment. What was important was that Vanessa abandoned her duty of putting one pile of snow onto the other pile of snow. Sure, it wasn't an easy task, but it was their job none-the-less! Even if she wanted to "break"...

Now she's just lying on the couch with a bag of peppermints under her arm. Is that what a break is? Maybe Ben should just go back to shoveling snow… He didn't really care for peppermints all that much; they burned his tongue.

"What are you doing?" the girl asked with a sharp bitterness in her voice as she popped one of the mints like a pill.

Ben paused for a moment, glancing up at his father uncertainly before the man gave him a small nod and he turned back to face his sister. "Vanessa? Are you taking a break…?"

"Yeah, sure." She took no time in answering, instead focusing more on swiveling her head around the two to see the T.V. screen.

Scott slowly set his child down, stepping out of the way of his daughter and allowing his son to shuffle those tiny little feet over toward said girl.

Once he had arrived, Ben tugged a small bit at his sister's arm, which she waved out of his grasp. He took a quick glance at the T.V. screen and then back at his eight-year-old sister. Wow, those people looked really weird. "What are you watching?"

"A Thousand Ways to Die," she responded rather plainly, amber eyes not removing themselves for a second.

Ben's expression, on the other hand, began to fill up with slight worry as he turned to the screen once more. A Thousand Ways to Die? That sounded...horrible. Why would anyone watch that? "Are they going to die?"

Vanessa let out a small breath of annoyance. "Just watch," she replied. In the meantime, Scott had made himself over to the couch and sat down. He'd never heard of this show, so maybe it was just a silly Halloween-level spooky? Hopefully it wasn't too bad…

Soon enough, one of the girls on screen was crawling out of an elevator that had apparently frozen. She was desperately trying to get out of the crowd of people within it, however a sound could be heard that implied it starting back up, and the next moment, Vanessa was smirking at the obviously-fake blood that poured out of her skull. Well, it was obviously fake to Scott, at least, who reached for the remote the second he heard his youngest scream.

Within seconds, the screen went black, the remote was dropped back on the coffee table and the youngest, now crying child was lifted back into his father's arms. He held the boy close to him as Ben's tears fell down onto his shirt before turning to Vanessa. "I-I don't want you watching that anymore."

"What?" The girl was appalled; her eyes widened at those very words and mouth became agape. "But I like that show!"

"It's...it's too violent for you. I th-thought you liked My Little Pony?"

Yeah, well, that was before she found out shows could have blood in them.

Taking the silence as a...well, Scott wasn't really sure how to take the silence, so he simply reached back for the remote, quickly changing it to that channel as soon as he could to avoid any further grotesque scenes. This would cause Vanessa to pout, but if it meant sparing his children from a violent future, the father was willing to put up with it.

* * *

 **Filler chapter woops.**

 **I'm kind of excited for next chapter and REALLY FREAKIN' HYPED FOR CHAPTER 23 OMG LIKE YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN KNOW**


	18. Bonus Chapter (non-cannon)

**Hey. So, uh, I was going through some stuff, and I found this little excerpt for FNaF I wrote a little over a year ago. This isn't cannon with the rest of the fic, I just thought it'd be fun to post it. There's not enough content for an actual separate story, nor do I plan on finishing it, but eh. I dunno. I thought it'd be fun.**

 **So I have two versions: the original and revised. The revised is tweaked a bit to update the writing style, word choice, etc., correct grammar and change a few details. It's...better...than the original...heh.**

 **(seriously this is kind of crap I just thought it'd be fun to post)**

* * *

 _ **Revised Version**_

It'd been precisely one week since they returned home, and yet it still reeked as though they'd never even left.

The air mostly gave that appearance- stale, cold, silent air, save for the rhythmic beeping of a little boy's heart monitor. Said boy laid lightly on top of his bed, onyx eyes shut tightly and hands clutching to a stuffed bear as if his life depended on it. In a way, it did.

Seated next to him in a wooden chair was his teary, gold-eyed brother. A guitar hung loosely around his neck, the pick a foot away on the little one's dusty nightstand.

Two knocks came from the younger's open door and his brother turned his shaking head.

In the doorway stood a much older, much taller figure with fluffy black hair that brushed against the doorway as he stepped inside.

"Jack," the man called softly. "Are you ready for dinner?"

Jack shook his already-trembling head. He simply didn't feel like wasting the effort to speak. He rarely ever did anymore.

This, of course, caused his father to frown. "You didn't eat since yesterday. At least have some soup. Please."

Once more Jack gave a nonverbal 'no', leaving his father to take a sad glance at both boys before retreating back to the kitchen.

The older brother then returned his attention toward the younger. His arm extended off its resting place and to the plush resting beside him- a brand new, soft golden bunny supposed to replace the mangled rabbit now packed away in some storage box up in the attic. What was it the thing's name? Plushtrap? Yeah, something like that… This could be New Plushtrap- Girl Plushtrap- complete with eyelashes and a bow.

"Ben," Jack whispered while leaning in closely. "I got you something."

But the younger boy gave no reply, physically or aurally, and so Jack found himself biting his lip not to cry. The plush was laid at Ben's side while his brother gripped tight to his hand.

"I-I'm sorry, Ben… We're still your friends… Do you believe that?"

No motion. No motion to anything; not Jackson's grip that feared it might break the delicate hand, not his soft-spoken words that might rupture Ben's already-torn up ears...nothing.

Or at least, not at first.

After approximately two minutes of frozen sorrow, the little arm twitched away from its older brother's grasp, whose mouth gaped open at the sight. This...i-it was just fluke.

 _He's not...is he?_

Sure enough, the other arm was brought to Ben's chest along with his Fredbear plush as his eyes shot open, their black irises sparkling with terror while darting around wildly.

* * *

 _ **ORIGINAL (seriously I wrote this a year ago if you thought the first version was bad this is unedited)**_

It'd been precisely one week since they returned home, and yet still reeked as though they'd never even left.

The air mostly gave that appearance- stale, cold, silent air, save for the rhythmic beeping of a little boy's heart monitor. Said boy laid lightly on top of his bed, onyx eyes shut tightly and hands clutching to a stuffed bear as if his life depended on it. In a way, it did.

Seated next to him in a wooden chair was his teary, brown-eyed brother. A guitar hung loosely around his neck, the pick a foot away on the little one's dusty nightstand.

Two knocks came from the younger's open door and his brother turned his shaking head.

In the doorway stood a much older, much taller, much darker figure dressed in a formal purple suit, despite it being Saturday.

"Jackson," he said softly, "are you ready for dinner?"

Jack shook his already-shaking head. He simply didn't feel like wasting the effort to speak. He rarely ever did anymore.

This, of course, caused his father to frown. "You haven't eaten since yesterday. Please, at least have a bowl of soup."

Once more Jack gave a nonverbal 'no', leaving his father to take a sad glance at both boys before retreating back to the kitchen.

The older brother then returned his attention toward the younger. His arm extended off its resting place and to the plush resting beside him- a brand new, soft golden bunny supposed to replace the mangled rabbit now packed away in some attic storage box. What was it Ben had named him? Plushtrap? Yes, something like that… This could be New Plushtrap- Girl Plushtrap- complete with eyelashes and a bow.

"Ben," Jack whispered while leaning in close. "I got you something."

But the younger boy gave no reply, physically or aurally, and so Jack found himself biting his lip not to cry. The plush was laid at Ben's side while his brother gripped tight to his hand.

"I-I'm sorry, Ben… We're still your friends… Do you believe that?"

No motion. No motion to anything; not Jackson's grip that feared it might break the delicate hand, not his soft-spoken words that might rupture Ben's already-torn up ears...nothing.

Or at least, not at first.

After approximately two minutes of frozen sorrow, the little arm twitched away from its older brother's grasp, whose mouth gaped open at the sight. This...i-it was just fluke.

 _He's not...is he?_

Sure enough, the other arm was brought to Ben's chest along with his Fredbear plush as his eyes shot open, their black irises sparkling with terror while darting around wildly.

* * *

 **As I said before, this isn't cannon to the rest of the fic, just thought it'd be fun to post. Ben never got transported home while he was still in a coma. I think I got that idea from Insidious or something.**


	19. Hibernate Sleep Part 1

**Yeah...this chapter was way too long to do all in one part, and I reaaaally don't feel like proofreading it (dude I started it over a month ago), so...sorry for the mistakes that there will probably be. Eh.**

 _ **Just for clarification,**_ **I don't care whether or not you agree with trans, how many genders you believe there are, or any of that. This represents the character's viewpoint and the character's viewpoint only (and there might be some hints of their mom disagreeing with it...).**

 **Chico identifies as genderfluid. I don't care if you think that's a thing or not. I don't care if you want to look at them that way or not. I don't care if you think they act more like something else or not. They're a young teen still exploring themself, and they refer to themselves as non-binary/genderfluid. They will tell someone to say 'they' instead of 'he' or 'she'. They wear skirts and makeup and dresses. They are _born with male genitalia,_ but do not see themselves as a dude.**

 **Just thought I should put that out there. Now, I couldn't give a flying fuck what anyone thinks about that. Hell, I couldn't give a flying fuck what _I_ think about that. Having a character as something does not mean that I agree or disagree with their ideals. I could have a Muslim character. Does that make me Muslim? No! Does it make me Muslim if I don't make that Muslim character look bad for being Muslim? No! Sorry to those of you who couldn't give a flying fuck either, but there's people that think "you have a character that's gay so you must support gays!" and, while I can see the logic that follows through with statements similar to that, it's completely false. Having a character be something does not mean that reflects how the author feels. Yes, the author will put bias in, but a good author can _hide_ the bias.**

 **I hope that makes sense. And if you don't care...good. Keep not giving a fuck. Sorry for the rant. Kinda got pissed with it.**

 **Anyway! Wow, it's been a while. But, I do really want to finish this, so...here we are.**

* * *

 **Day 18 - Sleepovers - Part 1**

"Another sleepover," Jack muttered, the wheels of his bag making more than enough noise to cover up the sound of his voice. He strolled up to the front door, a black dog with white paws and abdomen beginning to charge after him as he approached.

"Hey, Marbles," he greeted the borador, crouching down so his hand could gloss over the dog's fur. She returned the greeting with a loud yelp and the door beside them swung wide open.

They both glanced up at the dog's owner, who was standing in the doorway, hand on the knob. "Hello, Jack. I see Marbles beat me to you again."

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, well, she knows pretty well that no one can deny this." He then stood, letting a hand fall down from the base of his neck to the top of his hips, then simply extended his hand to gesture toward the rest of his body. "Dogs included."

This caused the person to giggle a little as they stepped aside to allow the two in. Chico opened the screen door and waited until Jack had a firm hold of it before backing away completely so that the two had enough room to enter, at which Marbles paused to obediently wipe off her paws on the greeting matt before continuing.

Once inside, the tallest of the three slipped off his shoes, tossed them to the side and stepped forward with a confident foot. He looked around, resisting the urge to roll his golden eyes at the sight of Chico picking up the flung-about shoes to neatly place them on the tray just beside the door.

"You could be a little neater, y'know."

"Yeah, I know."

With that, they then proceeded into the dining room, through the kitchen and finally stopping just above a staircase that descended into the pitch black. As soon as the last piece was noticed, Chico wouldn't bother stopping their eyes from rolling and called out into the darkness, "Toby, I said no haunted houses!"

To which a voice called back, "Oh c'mon this is gonna be fun we can fuck with people you just gotta get the neighbors over c'mon!"

"I already told you I'm not getting the neighbors involved in this." The teen let out a small grunt, to which their dog barked into the darkness before bounding down the steps.

Jack blinked, slightly curious as to what had just occurred but deciding that it might be better not to ask. Instead, he followed behind his cru- er, friend, and friend's pet, eyes scanning along the darkness for any signs of his other two friends. Those eyes would wince, however, as a light switch was flicked and his pupils constricted to block an excessive amount of light from entering. What he would spot after the half-second of recovery was the person who had greeted him standing by said light switch, glaring across the room to a Toby whose head was hanging low. The latter of the two held a bottle of ketchup in one hand and two rolls of toilet paper in the other, a third roll being seated on Frederick's lap, who was positioned on a small couch near one of the corners.

"Do I want to know what those are for?" Jack asked, if only to break the silence. So much for staying quiet on the matter. He was never really one to hold back urges anyway.

Fred shifted his feet, falling back into a laying position seeing as he probably wouldn't be required to stand up any time soon. "We were thinking of playing a prank on the neighbors." His dark blue eyes shifted over to the small pane of glass serving as the only window in the basement. "I don't really think anyone would be out right now, though."

This caused the drama queen in the room to put on an over-exaggerated frown of frustration as his fists clenched. "Yeahwellhowdoyouknowthatthisisn'tyourhouseoryourneighborhoodoranythingc'mon!"

This mock-anger failed to phase anyone, however, as they were already fairly used to Toby's emotions on steroids. Fred chuckled a small bit, returning his attention to the tallest male of the bunch and giving one small nod. "No, but I live a block away. No one's out on this side of the city at night."

"He's right," Chico added, placing themself gently on the edge of the couch, to which Frederick reflexively moved his feet farther up to provide room. "No one's outside after dark. The parents are all worried about what happens downtown to happen here, too, so no one goes."

The other teen gave another small nod. "At least not without a car."

Toby huffed, flinging himself onto the floor in front of the couch and crossing his arms like an enraged five-year-old. "Fine but I wanna watch a movie then."

To this, the other three teens laughed a small bit, practically forcing the smile back onto Toby's face as Marbles bounded up to him with a loud, heartfelt bark. She placed her paws on the sitting boy's chest and yelped again, tail wagging profusely.

"Fine fine we can watch Lassie okay?"

"But…" Chico frowned. "I don't own Lassie."

"Well what _do_ you own?"

The teen strolled over to a small wooden stand where a box T.V. about 20 or so inches rested on top, two cabinets and a draw underneath it. Chico reached for the knobs on the cabinets at the bottom and pulled the two open to reveal several different titles organized side-to-side in alphabetical order by title. One of the cases- specifically one with a demented-looking child on the front cover- was removed after the owner took a quick glance around the room at the other occupants. It was then placed by their side as they shut the cabinet doors and stood.

"Alright. I think I found something for us to watch."

All three boys peered at their non-binary friend with intrigue. Toby, as always, was the first one to speak. He ran his fingers along the case that was now being held out for everyone to see.

"What is this The Grudge I've seen The Grudge."

Chico shook their head. "This isn't just The Grudge."

"It's not?" Jack took the case. "It _looks_ like The Grudge."

"Yeah, it does, but it's a little bit more than that."

They held out their hand for the DVD, of which Jack casually slid back into Chico's palm, ignoring the Japanese letters that made up the title.

Fred tilted his head ever-so-slightly. "How?"

"Oh, you'll see."

The group of teens all glanced between themselves as the credits started to roll. Toby's redish-blue eyes danced around the room, stopping only for a moment on each living creature alongside him before removing his head from Frederick's shoulder with discomfort. His mind was quick to calm itself, however there was still that uneasy feeling that didn't quite want to go away. He slowly drew his arms away from his knees and slid off the couch, turning to face the group.

As this happened, Frederick made no movement. Honestly, he'd rather prefer having Toby stay with him to help calm his nerves down, as he was having some difficulty keeping them together. His dad always told him to be a tough man. His dad always told him to be a strong man. He couldn't show the fear that rested inside of him, so the boy simply sat still.

"Hey Marbles went away," Toby stated, something Chico had already noticed quite a while before.

Chico instinctively let their purple eyes trail up to staircase the dog had bounded up as soon as she heard the front door opening. It was then the teen realized who was wrapped around them and spun their head to spot Jack, whose arms quickly withdrew from the person they had been holding onto. Jack's golden eyes turned upward at ceiling shortly thereafter.

"So, uh…" Fred said, if only to break the momentary silence as his own sapphire pools scanned around for something to do. "...what now?"

Chico slowly stood, ignoring the fact that Jack had been so close and ignoring the sickening feeling they had in their stomach. They'd watched the movie the most out of all the teens, yet still they felt somewhat anxious afterward. At least it wasn't as intense as the first time.

"I have some cookie batter we could use to make chocolate chip cookies."

"Ew cooking!" Toby exclaimed and bounced backward with his regained hyperactivity. "Gross that's what girls do we're men!"

He received a glare from Chico at this and proceeded to roll his eyes. "Fine fine three men and whatever the fuck you are."

"Genderfluid," Chico replied almost immediately in the most deadpan voice they could muster. "I am genderfluid."

Jack, who had been staring with wide eyes at the T.V. screen up until this point, pulled away when he heard his cru- _friend_ grow agitated. He forced his muscles to unclench and swung his feet up onto the couch which caused them to land on Frederick's lap. "I kind of agree with Toby on this one. Cooking's dull. I mean, yeah, you like it, and that's cool, but I almost burnt my house down last time."

Fred simply directed his attention to the feet planted in front of him.

"Fine," Chico replied as they crossed their arms. "I was only offering it as a suggestion anyway." Like they cared if the guys didn't like to cook!

"We can go prank the neighbors!" Toby butted in shortly after. His arm outstretched for one of the toilet paper rolls and held it up like a white trophy. "C'mon just a little "blood" it'd be awesome seriously!"

Chico's right eye twitched, their arms tightening around their torso. "Toby, I already said no. We're not waking up the neighbors just to prank them. No one's even out at this time and there'd be no place to do it anyway. I don't know if you've forgotten, but we don't have lawns like you do out here in the city."

Jack nodded. "He has a point."

"They," Chico corrected, their head quickly swivelling back to look at the guy.

This caused the guy to freeze. "...right. They."

Toby groaned again, dropping down to the floor in a five-year-old manner. "This is booooorriiiiiiinnnngggggg cities are booooorrrriiiiiinnngggg!"

The second tallest teen almost chuckled at that, but was quick to catch himself when the basement door swung open. All five sets of eyes turned over to the older figure, whose voice sounded rather feminine as she called out, "Chico? Sweetie? You down there?"

"Yeah, mom," they called back, taking a few steps forward and forcing the aggravation to drain from their voice.

"Are all your friends there too?"

"We're here, Charlo-" Jack cut himself off when he saw the glare from his... _friend_ (honestly, it wasn't that uncommon of a sight). "-I mean, uh, Ms. Fowler."

The woman took a few steps downstairs, glanced over at the teens and smiled. "Alright. You guys have fun. I've got some cookies in the oven, so if you want any, they'll be ready in about half-an-hour."

"Thanks mom," Chico said with a smile and waved her goodbye before promptly hearing the door shut.

"I have an idea!" Toby chimed in the second she was gone. All eyes turned to him and he smiled broadly. "Let's go see your room!"

"No."

That smile, however, quickly faded. "Why not I've never seen it before you never let me up in your room and you rarely let me in your house it's not fair!"

"Yeah, well." The teen then reached out for the toilet paper roll Toby still held in his hands and snatched it away, tucking it under their arm. "There's a reason for that."

"What you think I'm gonna mess it up super bad or something I can be neat if I really want to-!"

Fred stepped between the two with a firm foot, placed both hands against their chests and glanced between them with an expression that showed some minor agitation in his eyes. "Guys."

Jack's own, however, would glance up at the stairway that Chico's pup had bounded up quite some time ago. "Why don't we take Marbles to the park?"

All four sets of eyes then turned onto him, who had been unusually quiet for a little while. Three of them looked between each other, seemingly to mentally pass about their thoughts.

"She'll love it," Jack continued, "It's not that far, and we can grab a flashlight if we need to."

When two of the three teens still deciding nodded, Chico took a quick glance to the ceiling. "I'll have to check with my mom, but she won't-"

"Won't let us out?" Jack finished, already heading up the staircase. "Then don't ask her. She's still upstairs for a half-hour. The park's right around the block, isn't it?"

"But it's past curfew."

"Then we won't get caught." With that, Jack bounded up the staircase, flung open the door and nodded in greeting to the woman at the oven before shouting out, "Marbles!"

Within seconds, the pup came bounding down the staircase, wagging her tail along with her. Jack bent down so his hand would be able to reach the top of her head without straining his back, however something hanging in her mouth caught his eye. Carefully, the object was removed, though Jack did scowl a small bit as the drool dripped off of the...newspaper? At this hour? It was then unraveled, a small note lying in the center.

" _You boys better not be thinking of going out this late. You'll miss the cookies. -Mrs. Charlotte Fowler."_

Jack's eyes scanned over the paper, his face going pale. Oh...kay. She...she knew.

Without another word, the teen slipped back downstairs, a certain borador wagging her tail behind him.

Frederick's head swiveled as he heard the slow sound of footsteps descending down the staircase. Shortly after, the head of the tallest boy would turn, followed soon after by the shortest.

One in particular, the tallest, was by now bounding up and down with excitement. "Well are we going out are we are we?

They were at least expecting _some_ sort of answer...they did get it, though it caught them off guard when Jack had flung the note toward them, which Toby had to scatter to catch. When he read it over, he passed it to Fred, who passed it to Chico.

"...I told you we're not going out."

"So what we do we do now huh I mean-" The energetic boy interrupted himself with a yawn, though afterward, continued as if he had never stopped. "-I'm already super pumped we gotta do SOMETHING c'mon guys!"

" _I'm_ going to bed," Chico stated as they curled up in their sleeping bag. "The rest of you may join me if you so wish. Or get cookies. I don't mind either way, but Marbles is falling asleep with me.

And like that, after the cookies had been eaten, the group eventually shut their eyes. A bit spread apart, yes, but it was eventually so, and Jackson, who had hoped that perhaps sleeping in a different room for the night would cure his nightmares, was horribly, horribly wrong.


	20. Hibernate Sleep Part 2

**Day 18 - Sleepovers - Part 2**

The boy opened his eyes, which he rubbed with hands just barely large enough to clutch the flashlight beside him.

"Oh, great…" Jackson muttered once he was able to clear the dirt from his big, bright gold eyes. They rolled, a small 'huff!' escaping his lips as he quickly surveyed the area. Closet in front of him, slightly adjourned. No movement. No fox.

He quieted his breath, closing those eyes and tuning to the noises outside his room. No footsteps yet. That's good. A good sign.

With a deep sigh, the boy brought his free hand up to his forehead, flicking on the light from the flashlight and waving it about. Ug, night six was the worst. Well, no, night seven was the worst, but night six wasn't much better.

"Jack?" a quiet voice cut through the air, causing Jackson to jump halfway across the room. He whipped the light around to the source of the noise- the bedside- and forced poor Frederick to recoil in pain.

"...Fred?" Jackson tilted his head. Woah, woah, wait. When did he get here? His friends were never in his nightmares...not to mention how different Fredrick had looked from when he fell asleep. Several inches of height had just vanished, among other things he couldn't quite put into words. Kid pajamas, for certain, green ones with...ag, no, Chico was the artist. They'd be much better at this.

"Sorry," Jack continued once he realized the cringe had been caused from holding his beam in his friend's eyes. He quickly waved it away from the bed. "You caught me off guard."

The shorter of the two scooted over toward the edge of said object, gripping his hand firmly around the post before sliding off of it and onto the carpeted floor. "Where are we?"

"My room," he replied quickly, straining his ear first to the left, then to the right. Still nothing...though maybe he should go check by the doors. That'd be good.

The shorter boy tilted his head, his tiny feet touching the ground and he widened his sapphire eyes in surprise. Woah...no slippers. That's weird. He's been wearing slippers since...a while ago. Frederick couldn't remember the last time he went barefoot to bed. And his feet were smaller? Jeez, how old was he?

"This doesn't look like your room," he muttered, running his little hand along the carpet. "Look at the little kid toys."

Jack shook his head. Yeah, those were his toys when he was a kid, that phone...that robot...but he wouldn't admit it. Hey, even Frederick said it- those were little kid toys! He might actually blush if he claimed those toys as his own.

"So who's room is it, then?" he instead snapped back, leaning in slightly towards his friend. "Yours?"

Well, it certainly didn't look like Fred's, or Chico's, or Toby's, and the chubbiest of the group was pretty sure it wasn't any of their siblings'.

Frederick shook his head, more focused on examining how small his hands fared in comparison to the bedpost. They were even chubbier than normal, like little baby hands.

It seemed like he was about to voice this concern when a loud static-like noise from behind caused him to jump toward his friend, arms wrapping around the boy tightly. Fred's eyes sparkled with fear, fixated on a chattering little bear that took the spot he had been in only moments before.

"What's that?" he whimpered, surprised by the unevenness in his voice. Normally, he held a very monotone pitch, rarely ever showing emotion in it. That was something his father had instilled in him. For better or worse, well, that was up to debate, but the fact that its steadiness had vanished would've stunned him more if he wasn't face-to-face with the all too real terror of a ravenous, metal-toothed robotic stuffed bear ready to naw him down.

"A freddling," Jack replied. His own golden eyes narrowed at the thing as he left his light linger over the sheets. After a moment or so more, the creature would leap off the bed, Frederick jumping at its sudden movement as it crawled back underneath.

"W...what?"

"A freddling," he repeated, a certain sternness in his voice that only a young child trying not to giggle could have. For whatever reason, seeing his normally emotionless friend jumping left and right overrid the need to scream and cry. He always had that urge, and he always bit it back, of course, but that didn't mean Jack never felt it while drifting in his dreams. "Look, just...be quiet, okay?"

Frederick, still clinging tightly to his friend and trembling slightly, nodded, watching the bed very carefully for a moment or so before he was jerked away, hands stiff with fear. Jack was dragging him somewhere- the left door. Why, he wasn't entirely sure, but only tilted his head slightly and watched as they were pulled away from the potential dangers.

Once at the door, however, Jack did not continue hurrying out like Frederick would probably have wanted. He instead leaned up against it, pressing his ear against the wood and peering out into the darkness.

Fred, being the quiet child he was, only stood and watched. What on Earth was Jack doing? His eyes glanced back at the bedside, watching as the hellish creature from before appeared on the bedside and caused him to hold on tighter to his friend, once more beginning to tremble.

"Could you be quiet?" Jack snapped, shoving him away a bit. God, he was trying to concentrate! Did Frederick _want_ them to die?!

"S-sorry," the other stuttered, though didn't make any move to change his behavior, still being focused on the toy that had reappeared on the bed.

With a quick huff, Jack scurried back over to where his friend was watching, flicked his flashlight at the demonic stuffed bear, and forced the thing back underneath. His friend, who had been dragged along with him, breathed a small sigh or relief before tensing once more. Would it come back? What if it came after them this time!?

Jack glanced around the room, attempting to scan over for anything to occupy his company. "Look, just…" He ran up to the chest of drawers, flung open one in particular and rummaged about until finally his hand drew upon a set of three flashlights, each one smaller than his own, but good enough, right? Yeah, good enough. After each one was examined, a green torch was then tossed over to Frederick, who, by no means athletic, was just barely able to catch the thing. The boy's eyes would rake over the device for but a moment before he began to spam the on/off button.

"Woah, Fred! Wait! You're gonna drain it! Uh, keep it on the bed, okay? If one of them goes up then-"

"One of them?!" There were more!?

With a small groan, Jack shook his head, hurrying back over to the left hall. Oh, god...they were here, weren't they? They had to be here by now. That guy took way too long freaking out and now the dreamer was going to be dead by one of the two in the hallway! Ag!

 _Just calm down. Press your ear against the door, listen quietly, don't move… He's gotta be there. Just be quie-_

"OHMYGODWHEREAMITHISLOOKSLIKEJACK'SHOUSESOMEBODYHEEEELLLPPPP!"

Wait, what?

Jack poked his head out of the room for the first time, curiosity taking over as he flashed his light down the hallway. Its luminous gaze was partially blocked from reaching the floor as it struck a thin figure lying against said carpet. The body turned sharply at the sensation of light, wincing a small bit when it met his eyes but quickly sprung to its feet and rushed over toward the figure that had caused him the pain.

"JACKOHMYGODIT'SYOUWHEREAMIISTHISYOURHOUSEWHYISITDARKWHYDOISOUNDLIKEI'MFIVEWHERE'SEVERYONEELSEISTHISADREAMJACKYOUGOTTAHELPORTHEAUTHORMIGHTDOSOMETHINGTOUS!"

The boy tilted his head, a confused expression sprawling onto his face as took a moment to register this. "...Toby?"

Toby's worried expression seemed to melt away, however, instead replaced with a wide grin and a couple giggles. "Ohmygodyousoundlikeyou'refourandIsoundlikeI'mfivethat'ssoooooofunny!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked the fleshy pack of Red Bull. "I can't understand you when you talk like that."

"WhatyoumeansuperfastIthoughtInormallytalkedlikethisyoucanunderstandmenormallyrightsowhycan'tyouunderstandmelikethis?"

"Uh...huh…" Jack nodded his head, taking a quick glance back at Frederick, who had paused in spamming his flashlight to turn his head toward the source of the noise.

"Toby?" the no-longer-smallest asked, dropping his arm slightly. "You're talking like you did when you were little."

"IKNOWIAMYOUALLSOUNDREALLYYOUNGLIKEMEexceptyousoundyoungerthanmebecauseyousoundfourandIsoundfivesohahaI'molderthanyoubyawholeyear!"

The quieter two glanced between each other, one not being able to pick out the spoken words and the other simply not understanding. The former would shake his head.

"Toby? Uh, look, just be quiet, okay? Did you see a-?"

Though Toby would cut Jack off before said boy had a chance of finishing, eyes wide, hands flying to his hips. "DID YOU JUST TELL ME TO BE QUIET?! YOULITTLESHITI'LLHAVEYOUKNOWMYMOMMASAIDIHAVETHEBIGGESTMOUTHINTHEWORLDTHAT'SWHYTHETOOTHFAIRYLIKESMETHEBESTBECAUSEIHAVETHEMOSTTEETHANDALSOWISDOMTEETHTHATWON'TNEEDTOBETAKENOUTSOI'LLBESMARTERTOODON'TTELLMETOBEQUIET-!"

"Toby calm down!" Jack's voice shrieked across the two inches of space between them, almost sounding like Ben the way it cracked. He hadn't ever dared to yell like that in his dreams before, and the child would take a quick glance around before refocusing his attention on the somehow shorter of them. Wow, Toby was actually smaller. How was Toby smaller? Toby was always really, really tall, or at least compared to Fre-

Of course, Jack's mind only fiddled with that thought for a moment or so. There were much more important things to take care of, after all. With a deep breath in (which was let out but a moment later), Jack grabbed a hold of Toby's shoulder and shoved a red flashlight into one of the boy's tan hands. Of course, this would cause the curious child to gaze over it with his eyes, soaking in the details of the torch and imprinting them into his memory.

"What is it?" he asked, though could already make a pretty accurate guess, especially once his fingers pressed the button and he let loose a beam of bright light that pressed against the empty closet.

"A flashlight, dummy!"

"HEYDIDYOUJUSTCALLMEDUMMY?!"

"Guys," Frederick cut in before the two had the chance to (quite literally) butt heads with each other. Both turned to face him, a look of irritation clearly present more so on one than the other. He at least seemed to have both of their attentions, which was much more than he could normally say.

"You're here…" he continued, looking at Jack. "...you're here…" His head then moved to align with Toby and remained there for a moment before his blue eyes trailed to the floor in front of him. "...and I'm here…"

"Yeah," Jack replied, his own eyes darting about. Where were all those monsters? They were usually active by this time.

There was a moment of pause for Fred to collect his thoughts before he would move the conversation along. "Where's Chico?"

The now tallest of the three blinked for half a second as his eyes widened. As if by magick, the sound of barking, a little higher-pitched than what usually played and much, much louder, filled the air and all three boys immediately sprung over to the right hall. Jack was quickest in slamming open the right door; all his training had gone out the window when instincts kicked in, mind screaming to help his friend. The knob made a slight 'thump' against the small table behind him. That wasn't where his eyes went, though. All three pairs were directed at the child in the center of the hallway. In front of that child stood a large, rusty, faded yellow robotic creature that just barely resembled a chicken in some nightmarish hell. It towered over all four of the kids with piercing claws extended out to its sides, teeth gnashing inside of what should have been a beak, instead looking like some sort of sharpened jaw bone that could skewer anyone unlucky enough to be within reach, all coated in a sickening, pale, putrid yellow that would have been more fitting coming out of someone's stomach than a paint color.

A dog stood between the two, thankfully, though a much smaller and weaker-looking one than what Jack had remembered. Her bark was more of a 'yip', and compared to the demonic giant, she wasn't anymore threatening than the stuffed plush that Jack slept with. Though, considering this reality, that wasn't really saying much. Honestly, Jack was more concerned in how large the puppy was compared to the robotic animal's foot, which appeared as if the thing could simply step on the poor pup without much trouble.

"Chico?" he called out to the child in the corridor, ignoring Fredrick's whimpering behind him. To his surprise, Toby didn't immediately spring past him, though on second thought, it might have something to do with the giant that loomed over the four. "Marbles?"

* * *

 **I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?**

First of all, I thought I left the FNaF fandom entirely. I sincerely thought I did. But slowly, there have been little thing bringing me back into this fanfiction. The ask is still closed, the poll is closed (I've decided to definitely do the "happy" ending and _maybe_ add the "sadistic" ending as a one-shot or an AU epilogue...we'll see), but this...we'll see where it goes. I don't know if my motivation will stay or not. Potentially. Potentially not. I guess it depends. But as of right now, it looks like it might be coming back.

If I do start getting back into writing this fiction, you'll notice that my writing style has changed quite a bit. I'm hoping it's improved, but, well, that's up to you I guess. I'm going to need to get back into the characters, which means that they might be a bit different from how you remember them. I'll try to keep them relatively the same. As for my DeviantArt, I may or may not begin to post FNaF art again. I don't really know. I haven't been getting many ideas for drawing lately.

I won't have a schedule for this fanfiction like I did for EquationTale. I'll write when I can/get inspiration to do so. School is going to be an asshole, and, well... I don't know what's going to happen.

 **With that being said, welcome back to 31 Days of Winter - FNaF 4 Style.**


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